Commentary: The "Oslo Syndrome" and the Terror Attack in Norway

One of the most sensitive aspects of the very sensitive subject of the murderous terrorist attack in Norway by a right-wing gunman is this irony: The youth political camp he attacked was at the time engaged in what was essentially (though the campers didn’t see it that way, no doubt) a pro-terrorist program.

The camp, run by Norway’s left-wing party, was lobbying for breaking the blockade of the terrorist Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip and for immediate recognition of a Palestinian state without that entity needing do anything that would prevent it from being a terrorist base against Israel. They were backing and justifying forces that had committed terrorism against Israelis and killing thousands of people like themselves.

Even to mention this irony is dangerous since it might be taken to imply that the victims “had it coming.” The victims never deserve to be murdered by terrorists, even any victims who think that other victims of terrorists “had it coming.” This is in no way a justification of that horrendous terrorist act. It’s the exact opposite: a vital but forgotten lesson arising from it that can and should save lives in future.

Call it the Oslo Syndrome.

The Stockholm Syndrome is named after an incident in which hostages taken by a terrorist group then quickly became supporters of that group. A combination of intimidation (persuade these people that we’re friends or they’ll kill us); human psychology (get to know someone and hear their sad—whether or not true—story and sympathy arises); and ideology (having—or thinking you have—common ideas and interests with the terrorist movement).

Then there was the Oslo Process, the 1993-2000 effort to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. In retrospect, it can be read as an attempt to solve a conflict by offering a great deal to those who instead rejected the offers, believing they could total victory through a strategy that included terrorism as a major component. Many in the West—especially Norway--think it only failed because not enough was offered and exculpating the terrorist side and strategy.

The Oslo Syndrome encompasses all of these things but goes a step further, for the most dangerous things you can do about terrorism is to make it appear politically successful and hence a great thing to do. For terrorism is not an ideology or a movement but merely a strategy: to murder noncombatants systematically and deliberately for political ends in order to get your enemy to give up and your own side to cheer and join up.

If you do this, will others, including the victims, be so terrorized as to give you whatever you want? Will they ignore the moral implications and support you nonetheless? Can you successfully make the argument that you are so oppressed as to justify terrorism, as the ambassador of Norway implied is true against Israel after the killings in the summer camp? Is it possible to engage in terrorism yet convince much of the world that your victims are the real terrorists?

And if you can answer any of these questions with a “yes” then terrorism may be for you. Of course, not every worldview or movement would use it but for those who do it is a very practical issue whether using terrorism is likely to result in being reviled and killed yourself or being celebrated internationally and receiving large amounts of money.

The Oslo Syndrome can be defined the opposite of the Stockholm Syndrome. Instead of being a target of terrorism and then changing views to support the terrorists’ side, it means—individually, as part of a movement, or as an entire country—supporting the terrorists’ side then being victims of terrorism.

Here are four cases of terrorism being perceived as failures and itself dying out:

--The idea that terrorism works originated with Gracchus Babeuf, a French revolutionary journalist who coined the word in 1793. A few months later, his comrade, Pierre-Paul Royer-Collard, called terrorism, “The only way to arouse the people and force them to save themselves,” exactly what today’s terrorists think.Babeuf was executed, though, and that idea became out of fashion for decades.

--Late nineteenth, early twentieth century leftist or nationalist terrorism engaging in bombings and murders in Europe and a bit in North America.

--Latin American terrorism of the 1960s and 1970s failing to achieve revolution and being repressed.

--European terrorism of the 1970s and 1980s mobilizing little sympathy.

In contrast, Middle Eastern terrorism (Palestinian, radical nationalist, Islamist) enjoyed much local support and political success even in the West. Shortly after the September 11 attacks, an aide to Usama bin Ladin, Abu Ubeid al-Qurashi, recalled how Palestinian terrorism inspired the assault on America: millions of people around the world heard Palestinian claims and demands; “thousands of young Palestinians” joined the PLO.

Yasir Arafat spent decades as a terrorist, was applauded at the UN—after a speech in which he threatened more murder—then spent decades more as a terrorist, afterward becoming a virtual head of state and winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Why should others not dream that the road to victory is paved with the corpses of deliberately murdered civilians?

If terrorist murders by Hamas and Islamists did not stop well-intentioned future leaders of Norway from enthusiastically considering them heroic underdogs, a local evil man could think his act of terrorism would gain sympathy and change Europe’s politics. After all, it has already changed the Middle East and even been sanctified by Western media, intellectuals, and governments.

When Norway’s ambassador to Israel distinguishes between “bad” terrorism in Norway and “understandable” terrorism against Israelis that opens the door to a man in Norway who thinks his country is “occupied” by leftists and Muslims?

In this sense, the most important thing about the terrorist in Norway is not that he is right-wing or anti-Islam, The most important thing is that he believed terrorism would work on behalf of his cause. After all, if he had held all of the same beliefs but didn’t think deliberate murder was a good strategy, nobody would be dead from his actions.

Of course, he was mentally unbalanced but did have a material basis for his imaginings. What he didn’t understand is that many Europeans will accept terrorism against Israelis or even Americans; very few will applaud terrorism against fellow Europeans.

Nevertheless, many people gave him the idea that terrorism would change minds, gain support, and bring victory. They weren’t those whose blogs he quoted a few times in a 1500-page manifesto and who explicitly rejected violence. They merely gave him programmatic ideas. It was the successful terrorists and their Western enablers who gave him the strategy he thought would work and implemented.

"Some of my friends tried to stop [the gunman] by talking to him. Many people thought that it was a test ... comparing it to how it is to live in Gaza. So many people went to him and tried to talk to him, but they were shot immediately."

He's right but in a very different manner from what he thought. It is more comparable to how it is to live in Israel being targeted by Palestinian or Lebanese terrorists who won't be talked into sparing your life. But it is people like the victims in Norway who want Israelis "to stop" the gunmen "by talking" to them.

"The Rise of the Macro-Nationalists," by Thomas Hegghammer in the New York Times, July 31 (thanks to all who sent this in):

AT first glance, the 1,500-page manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, the man accused of the terrorist attacks in Oslo, appears to be a fairly standard ideological treatise of the far right. The document, which Mr. Breivik posted online on July 22 just hours before the attacks and which he titled “2083 — A European Declaration of Independence,” evokes several of the movement’s central themes and cites numerous right-wing ideologues....

A note about this "far right" and "right-wing" business: this is how I am routinely characterized, as are my fellow anti-jihadists -- Hegghammer is merely following the herd. But what is the substance of this mainstream media moniker? Actually, there is no substance to it whatsoever. I have never taken a public position on any other issue besides jihad and Islamic supremacism. I've worked with people who are deeply religious and socially conservative and with people who are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Wafa Sultan are atheists; Geert Wilders' party is not justifiably called "right-wing" on any issue except jihad. Pim Fortuyn was a gay activist. Yet all of us and all the other anti-jihadists I could name are "far right" for the sole reason that we oppose the advance of Islamic law in the West. Yet note that in a spectacular manifestation of intellectual incoherence, the mainstream media also considers "far right" those who want to see Islamic law advance in the West and everywhere else -- see, to take just one of many readily available examples, this Associated Press article that calls the pro-Sharia forces Egypt "ultraconservative."

And that reveals the substance of this media label: something that is "far right" or "right wing" or "conservative" simply means something that the hard-Left politically correct media elites don't like, and don't want you to like. They dislike both anti-jihadists in the West and Sharia supremacists in the Middle East, although they hate the former much more than they do the latter, whom they disapprove of but tolerate. After all, they do have their hatred of America and the West in common.

While Mr. Breivik’s violent acts are exceptional, his anti-Islamic views are not. Much, though not all, of Mr. Breivik’s manifesto is inspired by a relatively new right-wing intellectual current often referred to as counterjihad. The movement’s roots go back to the 1980s, but it gained substantial momentum only after 9/11. Its main home is the Internet, where blogs like Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs and Gates of Vienna publish essays by writers like Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Bat Ye’or and Fjordman, the pseudonym for a Norwegian blogger. Mr. Breivik’s manifesto is replete with citations of counterjihad writers, strongly suggesting that he was inspired by them.

Of course, by advocating the mass murder of European politicians, Mr. Breivik goes much further than any counterjihad ideologue has ever done, and his manifesto contains ideas and information that have no precedent in the counterjihad literature. For example, he provides extensive advice on how to build bombs and plan terrorist attacks. The leading counterjihad writers have virtually never advocated violence, and several of them have condemned Mr. Breivik’s actions....

Virtually? That's weaselly. In fact, we never have. Ever. Still, I appreciate Hegghammer's acknowledgement that Breivik's manifesto contains "ideas and information that have no precedent in the counterjihad literature. For example, he provides extensive advice on how to build bombs and plan terrorist attacks."

Indeed, the more belligerent part of Mr. Breivik’s ideology has less in common with counterjihad than with its archenemy, Al Qaeda. Both Mr. Breivik and Al Qaeda see themselves as engaged in a civilizational war between Islam and the West that extends back to the Crusades. Both fight on behalf of transnational entities: the “ummah” — or “community” of all Muslims — in the case of Al Qaeda, and Europe in the case of Mr. Breivik. Both frame their struggle as defensive wars of survival. Both hate their respective governments for collaborating with the outside enemy. Both use the language of martyrdom (Mr. Breivik calls his attack a “martyrdom operation”). Both call themselves knights, and espouse medieval ideals of chivalry. Both lament the erosion of patriarchy and the emancipation of women....

Commentary: The chance of Ramadan

Islamic experts assure me there is no prohibition of warfare during Ramadan. On the contrary, many of Islam's great conquests occurred during this holy month, including the first clash between Muslims and infidels, which occurred in 624 when Muhammad led his troops to victory in the battle of Badr. War for the furtherance of Islam and against non-believers is considered ethically acceptable by scholars, even during the month of fasting and prayer.

But this is not the situation in Libya. David Cameron, the foreign secretary, William Hague, and Nicolas Sarkozy are not the prophet Muhammad and his companions. Even if Nato's intervention in Libya were entirely without self-interest (and not about oil and lucrative commercial opportunities) Islamic clerics concur that it is absolutely prohibited for Muslims to seek the help of non-believers against fellow Muslims.

Muslims fast during Ramadan, which begins on Monday, to understand the suffering of the hungry, to empathise with the weak, and to concentrate on God. It is not the time to increase the death toll and perpetuate the misery already caused in the course of Libya's civil war by continuing the bombardment.

Nato's intervention is, in any case, proving disastrous. It could have secured Benghazi and left, as most nations who passed security council resolution 1973 intended. Now, however, the objective is clearly regime change and Britain and France find themselves mired in a battle that is proving a great deal more difficult to win than they could ever have anticipated.

So far Muammar Gaddafi has survived, against all the odds, not only physically but politically. Several attempts to assassinate him have failed, early hopes for a "palace coup" have faded, and defections from his camp seem to be at an end. While Nato has almost obliterated the Libyan airforce, troops loyal to Gaddafi have regained around 20% of the territory lost in the immediate aftermath of the uprising in the east. Militarily the rebels have not been impressive, and now they risk being torn apart politically by widening factional rifts within the Transitional National Council (TNC).

Last Thursday an Islamist element within the putative new Libyan government murdered its military commander, General Abdel Fattah Younis, formerly Gaddafi's minister of the interior. Gaddafi would certainly have made much of this propaganda opportunity – questioning the TNC's democratic credentials and its ability to maintain law and order – had not Nato bombed Libyan state television's transmitters.

The TNC faced further PR problems as US Republican Senator John McCain castigated it for "documented" human rights abuses. In the absence of a straightforward "good guys, bad guys" formula, this was the moment chosen by Hague to declare UK recognition of the TNC as Libya's official government.

Abdel Fatah Younis was a member of the powerful Obeida tribe and his assassination could well ignite tribal divisions within the opposition, weakening it further. Even more ominously, during Younis's funeral one of his sons shouted, 'We want Ghadaffi back. We want the Green flag'.Much of the Libyan population is already weary of the conflict and fearful for the future. Sources in the country say 1,100 civilians have already lost their lives as a result of Nato bombing, and with few military targets left, the month of Ramadan may prove even bloodier if the campaign continues.

Popular support for the Nato effort is waning not only in the Arab world but also in the west. Many in Britain are questioning how ethical it is for the government to be pursuing two wars as budget cuts bite deep. The war in Afghanistan has so far cost the UK £18 billion and costs in Libya are already nearing £1 billion.

Ramadan could afford Nato the opportunity to cease its bombardment in recognition of this pillar of Islam and seek instead to broker a peaceful, negotiated settlement to a conflict that threatens to tear Libya apart.

Australia: Muslim uses Facebook to threaten to "kill all Christians and Jews" and bomb Sydney

A CLEANING business owner used Facebook to threaten to kill all Christians and Jews and bomb Sydney, police allege.

Khaled Zakaria, 30, faced Parramatta Bail Court yesterday charged with one count of using a mobile phone to menace or harass and two counts of making hoax threats using a mobile phone.

In documents tendered to the court, police said Mr Zakaria, of Greenacre, threatened to bomb intelligence agency ASIO, stab officers at Goulburn's super-max jail and get officers at Bankstown police station under the Facebook profiles Kay Zee, Khaled Ibn-Al Walid and Khaled Ibn-Alwalie.

Police alleged Mr Zakaria posted threatening comments on the Ban the Burka and Sharia for Australia Facebook pages, including: There's going to be a big bang in the City of Sydney on 30th of July, 2011. Watch out. Bang Bang.

Following Mr Zakaria's arrest on Friday by officers from the joint counter-terrorism team and the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad, police searched his house and car and seized two mobile phones and other related items.

Mr Zakaria's lawyer, Derek Druitt, told the court his client may be a victim of mistaken identity because he employs three people, one of whom has a similar name and initials. He said the hoax messages were posted using a work phone used by everyone at the company.

Magistrate George Zdenkowski refused bail, saying the protection of the community is at stake.

Mr Zakaria is expected to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday.

Commentary: No twisted religion in Norway tragedy

Michael Coren is host and producer of the nightly Michael Coren Show on CTS television. He is the best-selling author of twelve books. He has received several honorary doctorates and awards for his writing and broadcasting

Talk about exploitation of the innocents.

As soon as it was revealed Anders Behring Breivik was not a Muslim, and not part of some jihadist gang, the knives were out. Because, it was claimed, he was a fundamentalist Christian. Please!

The main photograph of the man used by the media showed him dressed as a freemason.

I know journalists are pretty dumb these days, but it doesn't take a theologian to realize freemasonry is anathema to fundamentalist Christianity, as well as Roman Catholicism.

In his personal manifesto the killer wrote: "Regarding my personal relationship with God, I guess I'm not an excessively religious man. I am first and foremost a man of logic. If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God."

He also quoted various atheist philosophers when he posted on blogs, was supportive of the gay community, hadn't attended church in 17 years, and seems to have had no connection to organized Christianity.

But that did not hold back the hysterical Christian-bashers out there.

The same happened, and still happens, with Timothy McVeigh. The Oklahoma killer was an atheist, who even in his final letter before execution screamed against God. No matter, he is still said to be a Christian.

Many of us assumed the Norway attack was the work of Islamic terrorists.

Actually, how could we not?

There have been thousands of Islamist attacks since 9/11, including mass slaughter in London and Madrid, and attempted attacks in Stockholm and Glasgow.

Anti-Semitic attacks by Muslims are now so great in Scandinavia Jewish parents in Denmark do not send their children to public schools, and almost all of the Jews in Malmo, Sweden's third largest city, left for their own safety.

The context of Norway is various Muslim fundamentalist groups promised terror attacks for some time now. Their reasons were Norway supported the war in Afghanistan, insisted on prosecuting an Islamic war criminal, and refused to ban a cartoon some Muslims found to be offensive.

Oh, and they are sort of Christian and certainly western meaning decadent, tolerant of gays, believe in gender quality, civil rights, and all that sort of stuff.

Islamic groups also claimed responsibility for the attack as soon as it happened.

The shock of all this is it was not an Islamist group that committed the crime, and I assure you they will commit many more such monstrosities in the future.

We will not, though, see copycat incidents from Norwegians who live with their mums, wear aprons, and are insane.

Oh, and when another Islamist attack does occur, the same people now screaming "Christian" will do all in their power to deny or disguise the religion of the perpetrators.

I weep for those poor people in Norway, but I also weep for a world that refuses to rise from its denial.

As Pfc. Naser Abdo beseeched officials to grant him conscientious objector status and release him from the military, he condemned a fellow Muslim soldier accused of shooting 13 people to death at Fort Hood. Such acts, he wrote, "run counter to what I believe in as a Muslim."

Less than a year later, officials say Abdo has admitted planning to launch another attack on Fort Hood with a bomb in a backpack and weapons stashed in a motel room where he was arrested Wednesday, about 3 miles from the Texas Army base's main gate.

The 21-year-old's writings, including the essay obtained by The Associated Press in which he deplored the 2009 shootings, portray a devout infantry soldier struggling with his faith while facing the prospect of deployment and what he felt was the scorn of his peers.

"Overall, as a Muslim I feel that I will not be able to carry out my military duties due to my conscientious objection," Abdo wrote in his application for the status. "Therefore, unless I separate myself from the military, I would potentially be putting the soldiers I work with in jeopardy.

"In this instance, I would be failing in my duty to my unit, my army and my god."

Abdo was approved as a conscientious objector this year, but his discharge was put on hold amid military charges that 34 images of child pornography were found on a computer he used. He went absent without leave from Fort Campbell, Ky., during the July 4 weekend.

On July 3, Abdo tried to buy a gun at a store near the Kentucky post, according to the company that owns the store. Abdo told an AP reporter a week later that he was concerned about his safety and had considered purchasing a gun for protection, but had not yet done so.

Police in Killeen said their break in the case came Tuesday from Guns Galore LLC -- the same gun store where Maj. Nidal Hasan bought a pistol used in the 2009 attack. Store clerk Greg Ebert said Abdo arrived by taxi and bought 6 pounds of smokeless gunpowder, three boxes of shotgun ammunition and a magazine for a semi-automatic pistol.

Updates:

Fort Hood victims make video, want terror attack to be called terror attack, not "workplace violence"

Nearly three years after the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, many of those affected are urging the government to declare it a terrorist attack, saying wounded soldiers and victims' relatives otherwise won't receive the same benefits as those in a combat zone.

About 160 people, including relatives of the 13 people killed at the Texas Army post and some of the more than two dozen wounded and their families, released a video Thursday expressing their frustration.. . .
The soldiers injured or killed have not received certain benefits and are not eligible for the Purple Heart, because the defense secretary has not declared it a terrorist attack, said John Stone, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. John Carter.. . .

[Staff Sgt. Shawn Manning, who was shot six times that day] said he is upset that the Defense Department has referred to the shooting as workplace violence.

Legislation that would award the injured from the 2009 Fort Hood shooting the Purple Heart would adversely affect the trial of Maj. Nidal Hasan by labeling the attack terrorism, according to a Defense Department document obtained by Fox News.

The document comes following calls from survivors and their families for the military honor, because they say Fort Hood was turned into a battlefield when Hasan opened fire during the November 2009 attack. Fox News is told that the DOD “position paper” is being circulated specifically in response to the proposed legislation.

The document reads in part:

"Passage of this legislation could directly and indirectly influence potential court-martial panel members, witnesses, or the chain of command, all of whom exercise a critical role under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Defense counsel will argue that Major Hasan cannot receive a fair trial because a branch of government has indirectly declared that Major Hasan is a terrorist -- that he is criminally culpable.". . ."This is a cynical travesty. What the government has done by making this statement is guarantee that anything done to help the victims will effectively prevent or impair Hasan's prosecution. There was no reason for the government to put this kind of a statement in writing, even if it were true (which it is not)," Sher said via email.

Sher represents families who are suing the Defense Department over the shooting which killed 13 and injured dozens at the Texas Army base in 2009.

Fox News was the first to report in 2011 that DOD was handling the attack, in which survivors say the shooter shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire – in the context of workplace violence. Fox News was the first TV network, in June 2012, to interview the survivors.

The Defense Department document says that to expand the Purple Heart criteria to include “domestic criminal acts or domestic terror attacks would be a dramatic departure” from traditional criteria.

“The Army objects to (the proposal) because it would undermine the prosecution of Major Nidal Hasan by materially and directly compromising Major Hasan’s ability to receive a fair trial. This provision will be viewed as setting the stage for a formal declaration that Major Hasan is a terrorist, on what is now the eve of trial. Such a situation, prior to trial, would fundamentally compromise the fairness and due process of the pending trial,” the document said.

It continues: “Moreover, the effect of such an act by Congress would be to deprive the victims of these crimes the right to see justice done.”
But Sher said the Army's legal arguments that such a situation prior to a trial would fundamentally compromise fairness and due process are especially troubling given the Holder Justice Department wanted to prosecute the self-described architect of 9/11 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-conspirators in a New York City federal court.

"Seriously? We could try KSM no problem, but helping out Hasan's victims creates due process problems?" Sher said.

Sher said the Fort Hood families he represents in the federal suit find it hurtful that DOD would now claim "such an unprecedented action would thwart the real and lasting measure that will bring closure to the grieving and harmed victims and families -- the trial itself."

While the document claims "the Government has vigilantly tended to the needs of the victims and families since the tragic events of November, 5 2009," Sher said the facts show the Army has failed to live up to its creed that no soldier will be left behind...

Fort Hood shooter released a statement to Fox News claiming that the U.S. military is at war with his religion

However, he does not directly address the shooting at the Texas Army Base in November 2009 that killed 13 and injured more than 30 others.

“My complicity was on behalf of a government that openly acknowledges that it would hate for the law of Almighty Allah to be the supreme law of the land," the 42-year-old Army psychiatrist said. Hasan then apparently asked if this was a war on Islam. "You bet it is," he said. "I participated in it.”

The statement, which begins “In the name of Almighty Allah, the most gracious and the most merciful, my name is Nidal Hasan, Major Nidal Hasan, and I would like to convey a message to the world,” runs more than six pages.

Hasan also says he regrets his years in the Army, claiming that his service was inconsistent with his religious beliefs. “I would like to begin by repenting to Almighty Allah and apologize to the (Mujahideen), the believers, and the innocent. I ask for their forgiveness and their prayers. I ask for their forgiveness for participating in the illegal and immoral aggression against Muslims, their religion and their lands,” he said.

Hasan also criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East toward the Palestinians.

While Hasan’s motivation for releasing the statement is unknown, Fox News has repeatedly requested an interview with him, with a specific focus on his alleged actions at the Fort Hood Readiness Center on Nov. 5, 2009.

It is believed to be the first lengthy statement by the Fort Hood suspect, whose court martial begins August 6. The judge in Hasan’s case recently ruled that he cannot argue as part of his defense that the shooting was an effort to protect Taliban leaders in Afghanistan – the so-called “defense of others” strategy.

George Stratton and his son -- who was wounded in the attack -- will both testify at the trial. Stratton told Fox News he is not surprised by the statement...

Days before he's set to go on trial, the Army psychiatrist charged in the Fort Hood shooting rampage released more of his writings about America and Islam.

Foxnews.com on Thursday posted documents in which Maj. Nidal Hasan renounced his U.S. citizenship and soldier's oath and denounced democracy. Hasan is charged in the November 2009 rampage that killed 13 soldiers and wounded more than 30 people at the Texas Army post. His court-martial is scheduled to start Tuesday.

The renunciation of U.S. citizenship is contained in a handwritten note dated Oct. 18, 2012, Fox News reported. A typewritten note that does not have a date says it is not "permissible" for someone to prefer American democracy over traditional Islamic Sharia law, the network also reported. Hasan wrote that Muslims should not "compromise their beliefs" for the sake of non-Muslims.

Hasan also wrote about Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical U.S.-born Islamic cleric killed by a drone strike in Yemen in 2011. The government has said that Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim, had sent more than a dozen emails to al-Awlaki starting in December 2008. Hasan described al-Awlaki as his "teacher, mentor and friend," Fox News reported...

Prosecutors of Maj. Nidal Hasan for the first time said that the Fort Hood massacre was an Islamic terrorist attack

Col. Steve Henricks, one of three prosecutors, likened Hasan to a suicide bomber, saying Hasan researched going on jihad before the attack that left 13 dead and 32 wounded.

It was the first time the Army has made that allegation. Prosecutors said they would show that Hasan tried to target soldiers and not civilians, and that he intended to martyr himself at the end of the massacre.

“We believe that just like a suicide bomber, Maj. Hasan had no intention of leaving 5/11 alive,” Henricks said without elaborating.

The Nov. 5, 2009 shooting is often called “5/11” in the Killeen area.

Prosecutors hope to use evidence in the trial, which starts Tuesday, to prove Hasan is guilty of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. The idea is to show that he became increasingly radicalized over time. Hasan, who faces the death penalty and is acting as his own attorney, did not object.

An American born to Palestinian immigrants, Hasan has told the court he was the gunman that day, and that he launched the attack in hopes of preventing U.S. soldiers from killing Taliban insurgents, their leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and innocent Afghan women and children.

Witnesses at a 2010 evidentiary hearing put Hasan at the scene, with some saying he cried, “God is great!” in Arabic. Critics have said those words, along with evidence showing he'd become religiously radicalized, prove he is a terrorist, but Pentagon leaders have never characterized the attack as such. In one congressional hearing, a government official labeled it an incident of workplace violence...

Jury finds Maj. Nidal Hasan guilty on killing 13 people and trying to kill 32 more during an attack at Fort Hood

The Army psychiatrist defended himself and repeatedly admitted to the shootings in the name of Allah.

Prosecutors said the devout Muslim had undergone a “progressive radicalization,” giving presentations in defense of suicide bombings and about soldiers conflicted between military service and their religion when such conflicts result in crime.

“My complicity was on behalf of a government that openly acknowledges that it would hate for the law of Almighty Allah to be the supreme law of the land,” the 42-year-old Army psychiatrist said in a statement sent to Fox News.
Hasan does face the death penalty.

Military prosecutors called 89 witnesses and submitted more than 700 pieces of evidence before resting their case, hoping to show that the American-born Muslim had undergone what they described as a progressive radicalization.

They have argued to the jury that Hasan, who was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan, did not want to fight against other Muslims and believed he had a jihad duty to kill as many soldiers as possible.

Haug said, according to the Senior Judge Advocate General at Fort Hood, Hasan is “no longer a military serviceman. He has no rank and is dishonorably discharged from the Army" following his court martial and sentencing for the mass shooting at Fort Hood in 2009.

Haug said going forward, Hasan will be called simply “inmate Nidal Hasan" at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.

Haug detailed that it will technically take some time until the paperwork is signed removing Hasan from the Army’s ranks. But Haug said the order will eventually be signed and backdated to the date of conviction, effectively removing Hasan from the Army as of his conviction date.

A military panel also ordered that Hasan be stripped of his military pay. However that order will not take effect until place 14 days following his sentencing. Hasan will continue to receive his full military salary until Sept. 10...

12 years for extremist web post calling on Muslims to attack British MPs

An IT graduate who posted messages on an Islamic extremist website calling on Muslims to attack British MPs who voted in favour of the war in Iraq has been jailed for 12 years.

Bilal Zaheer Ahmad, 24, posted the vile threat on the US-based RevolutionMuslim.com website a day after a Muslim woman had been jailed for trying to murder a senior Labour MP, Bristol Crown Court heard.

Mr Justice Royce jailed Ahmad for 12 years with an additional five years' extended period on licence.

The judge told him: "Whatever our views on the Iraq war, we are a democracy. You purport to be a British citizen but what you stand for is totally alien to what we stand for in our country.

"You became a viper in our midst willing to go to as far as possible to strike at the heart of our system."

Mr Justice Royce told Ahmad his views were "corrosively dangerous" and that he had attempted to strike at the heart of British democracy.

"Politicians are often faced with difficult decisions. They don't always get it right," the judge said.

"They have to face up to serious criticism on occasions as part of the democratic process. The same can be said for bankers, press barons and judges.

"It is important MPs can hold constituency surgeries without the threat of someone pulling out a knife and trying to kill them.

"You were intent on striking at the heart of our democracy and if our politicians are to be at risk from those like you, then the message must go out loud and clear that this country will not be tolerate such threats to its democratic processes."

Over half of Dutch say Wilders anti-Islamic rhetoric fine - poll

A majority of Dutch believe that Geert Wilders, the anti-immigration politician much admired by Norway's mass murderer, does not need to tone down his inflammatory anti-Islamic comments, a poll on Friday showed.

A polarising figure in the Netherlands, Wilders has been criticised for speaking out against Islam and immigration, with comments comparing Islam to Nazism. Last month, a Dutch court acquitted Wilders of inciting hatred of Muslims.

The Norwegian gunman, Anders Behring Breivik, reproduced anti-Islamic comments that Wilders made to the Dutch parliament and expressed his admiration of the Dutch politician in his 1,500-page manifesto.

Wilders has repeatedly denounced Breivik and his actions in the week since the July 22 attack.

Polling firm Maurice de Hond said on Friday that 52 percent of those surveyed thought Wilders did not need to moderate his stance on the supposed "Islamisation of Europe" in the wake of the Norway killings, while 44 percent said Wilders should tone it down.

Wilders wields considerable political influence in the Netherlands -- his Freedom Party is the third largest in parliament and provides support for the minority coalition of Liberals and Christian Democrats.

Some Dutch question their country's traditionally generous immigration and aid policies, worried by the deteriorating economic climate, higher unemployment, ethnic crime and a belief that Muslim immigrants have not fully integrated into mainstream society.

In the opinion poll published on Friday, 29 percent of those questioned said they supported the Freedom Party's approach to Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands, more than those who agreed on the issue with the Liberals and the Christian Democrats combined.

The Freedom Party received 15.4 percent of the vote in the Dutch parliament's lower house election in 2010.

KILLEEN — An AWOL soldier who had weapons stashed in a motel room near Fort Hood has admitted planning an attack on the Texas post, where 13 people died in 2009 in the worst mass shooting ever on a U.S. military installation, the Army said in an alert issued Thursday.

Pfc. Naser Abdo, a 21-year-old soldier granted conscientious objector status this year after he said his Muslim beliefs prevented him from fighting, was arrested Wednesday. Agents found firearms and “items that could be identified as bomb-making components, including gunpowder,” in his motel room, according to FBI spokesman Erik Vasys.

The Army alert sent via email and obtained by The Associated Press says Killeen police arrested Abdo after a tip from the owners of a gun shop and that he “was in possession of a large quantity of ammunition, weapons and a bomb inside a backpack.”

Upon questioning, the alert says, he admitted planning an attack on Fort Hood.

Officials have not offered details about Abdo’s possible intentions. The infantry soldier from Fort Campbell, Ky., whose hometown is Garland, applied for conscientious objector status last year. A military review board recommended this spring that he be separated from the Army.

The discharge was delayed after Abdo was charged with possessing child pornography. Fort Campbell civilian spokesman Bob Jenkins said Abdo “was fully aware that he was being investigated for possessing child pornography since November 2010.” An Article 32 military hearing last month recommended he be court-martialed; he went absent without leave during the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

THREE suicide attackers blew up vehicles packed with explosives at the gates of a government compound in southern Afghanistan, the opening salvo of an hours-long fight that left at least 19 people dead, authorities said.

The trio of nearly simultaneous attacks and subsequent gunbattle between other militants and Afghan security forces in Oruzgan province was the latest in an escalation of violence in the volatile south that has weakened the government's grip on the Taliban's heartland since the July 12 killing of President Hamid Karzai's powerful half brother in neighbouring Kandahar.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assaults in the provincial capital of Tarin Kowt, which targeted the governor's house, police headquarters and a third office used by Matiullah Khan, a powerbroker who runs a company that provides security for NATO supply convoys.

Afghan security forces responded to the scene and NATO coalition forces provided air support as fighting continued, said US Air Force Capt Justin Brockhoff, a spokesman for the US-led coalition.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told AP that a total of six suicide bombers conducted the attacks.

Initial reports said seven explosions went off, but it was not clear what caused them all, provincial spokesman Milad Ahmad Mudasir said.

Dr Khan Agha Miakhail, the director of the hospital in Tarin Kowt, said the 19 killed included 10 children, a policeman and two women, and 37 other people were wounded.

The BBC said its Afghan reporter in the province, 25-year-old Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, was among those killed in the fighting. Khpulwak was in a local radio and television building when it came under attack, Peter Horrocks, director of BBC Global News, said in a statement.

The Taliban spokesman called the AP to express sadness over the death of the journalist and accused pro-government forces of killing him.

"He was not our target," Ahmadi said. "We were fighting the headquarters of the police."

The attack in Tarin Kowt came a day after a suicide bomber with explosives tucked inside his turban killed the Kandahar mayor, Ghulam Haider Hamidi, deepening a power vacuum in the wake of the slaying of the president's half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai.

Bomb In Turban Kills Afghan-American Mayor in Kandahar

A suicide bomber who hid explosives inside his turban killed Kandahar's mayor, an affable, hard-working 65-year-old who was a dual American-Afghan citizen and the third major figure in the southern Afghan city to be assassinated in the past two-and-a-half weeks.

Ghulam Haider Hamidi, who died Wednesday morning, was praised by Afghan and American colleagues as an able administrator who chose to stay and help the city of half a million rather than return to a home he kept in Virginia, where he had worked as an accountant for 20 years.

His death is one of the highest profile examples in a wave of assassinations across Afghanistan, nowhere more obvious than Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban and the number one priority of the U.S. surge in 2010. U.S. officials say the tens of thousands of soldiers who arrived in Kandahar province helped eliminate traditional Taliban safe havens. But Afghan officials say they have never felt more vulnerable to assassination than today. In 2011, at least 10 Kandahar officials have been assassinated each month; that number was five last year and one in 2009, according to a tally by the Brookings Institution.

"This guy was the real deal," says a Western official who has worked with Hamidi. "He was committed to a brighter future for Kandahar."

According to Afghan officials, the bombing occurred while Mayor Hamidi was meeting with a delegation from a Kandahar neighborhood about illegal construction of houses on government land. The neighborhood's residents were angry because Hamidi had ordered the demolition of homes that he said were illegally constructed. During the demolition, two children were accidentally killed by a bulldozer.

A young man who walked in with the angry locals detonated a bomb in his turban as Hamidi walked past. The explosion also killed a bystander and wounded Hamidi's bodyguard.

It's not known whether Hamidi was killed by someone seeking revenge for the children's death, or by the Taliban, which claimed credit – or if he died as part of a factional power struggle for the future of the province.

Regardless, the assassination is part of a worrying trend. Two weeks ago, the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan, Ahmed Wali Karzai -- who headed the Kandahar provincial council -- was killed by a longtime associate. At a memorial service for Ahmed Wali Karzai, the province's top religious leader was killed by a suicide bomber who also hid explosives in his turban. And in April, the city's police chief was assassinated by his own bodyguard.

Commentary: In Jesus Name? Not Hardly

OK, it’s been a while since I’ve written a “Wizbang’s resident agnostic explains Christianity” post, so I think I’m a bit overdue.

The Norwegian monster who slaughtered nearly a hundred people is being labeled a “Christian right-wing terrorist,” based largely on his 1500-page manifesto and various other statements he made before and after his rampage. He states he’s a Christian, and was acting in defense of Christianity. So it’s a slam dunk, right?

Not hardly.

When the nutjob (I’m sticking to my long-standing policy of not naming monsters who commit their heinous deeds for publicity) talks about his actions and beliefs, he goes into detail about a great many of them. For example:

Anti-Islam: He’s deeply concerned about the rising numbers and activities of Muslims in Europe. And he doesn’t differentiate much between Muslims and Islamists — the former being the average rank and file Muslim that doesn’t really want trouble, and the fanatics.

Nationalist: He’s a fiercely proud Norwegian, and believes his native land is being invaded and subverted by Muslims.

Westerner: He extends his nationalism to encompass all of Europe and Western civilization, declaring that it is not just Norway, but the entire Western world that is under assault by the Muslims.

Zionist: He sees Israel and the Jews as natural allies, as they’ve been at the forefront of Islamic aggression for decades. Further, he sees Israel as a natural part of the Western world.

Plagiarism: Large portions of his manifesto were lifted and adapted — uncredited, of course — from the manifesto of the Unabomber, the infamous far-left eco-terrorist.

What’s missing from his rantings? Any indicator that he held very devout Christian beliefs.

Look at your average Islamist whackjob. They’re all too eager to talk about how they love Allah, that they’re carrying out Allah’s will, and can spout off countless verses that justify what they do and have done. Verses from the Koran, hadiths, and the words of various influential Islamic leaders all lend themselves to support whatever atrocities they commit. For example, the Muslim who killed two Army soldiers in Little Rock made it clear he was acting in the name of Islam. So did the Fort Hood shooter, the Times Square would-be bomber, the DC snipers, the underwear bomber, the shoe bomber, and countless others.

On the other hand, the Norwegian killer didn’t quote the Bible. He didn’t talk about how God or Jesus led him to carry out his deeds. No, to him “Christianity” is simply one aspect of Western culture and society that he feels to defend. It’s not the core of his belief system; it’s simply a way of emphasizing the un-Islamic nature of the West.

Likewise, I’m not too thrilled with the guilt by association game that’s going on. This monster talked about various “right-wing” bloggers, groups, and organizations (“right-wing” tends to lose a lot of coherence when applied to domestic politics, to most Americans, but it kinda fits here) that he liked, admired, and agreed with. This is leading to a lot of people trying to put some of the blame on those people.

Ridiculous. So what if he liked them? That’s hardly their responsibility. Now, I’d be more concerned if there was proof that those folks had supported him. Or even acknowledged him. There’s no sign they even knew he existed, let alone lent him aid and comfort in preparing for his deeds. And they certainly never said anything like “you know what would really strike a blow against the Muslim conquest of Europe? If some non-Muslim were to blow up the non-Muslim prime minister of Norway, then shoot almost a hundred non-Muslim kids! That’ll show them!”

Now, fanatics aren’t known for their logic, and religious ones especially. But the only way this might have advanced this nutjob’s agenda was if he’d concealed his identity and somehow managed to blame Muslims for the attack. And that certainly would have been plausible — as soon as the news broke, several radical Islamist groups first claimed responsibility, then backed down and simply praised it. And it was certainly in line with a lot of other Islamist attacks of recent history. While the main parallel was the Oklahoma City bombing, it was also reminiscent of the African Embassy bombings, the Khobar Towers bombing, and several other attacks. And the targeting of children reminded me of the Beslan school massacre.

But no, he let himself be captured, because he wanted the attention. And that there is the key.

This guy didn’t do this to advance any kind of cause, but himself. He wants the glory and the attention.

Which is why I won’t name him.

And why any attempt to blame any group, or ideology, or religion for his deeds is pointless. His primary motive was glory. He was most interested in promoting himself. And I won’t help him do that.

Devout Muslim Immigrant Charged in Plot to Kill President Obama

An Uzbek man, who was living illegally in the U.S., was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury for allegedly making multiple threats to assassinate President Obama, then gaining possession of explosive material and a machine gun.

Ulugbek Kodoriov is accused of making four threats against Obama from July 9 to 13, the indictment says. Kodoriov, who lived in Jefferson County, Ala., eventually gained possession of a Sendra Corporation Model M15-A1 rifle, which was illegal because of his immigration status, according to the indictment. He also allegedly obtained an explosive intended for use as a grenade.

He was residing at the Oak Mountain Lodge in Birmingham, according to a search warrant obtained by FoxNews.com. Authorities sought any information in his room regarding Obama, as well as sniper rifles, documents relating to assassinations and Jihadist manuals.

On July 9, Kodoriov contacted an FBI source and asked about ways to kill the president by a long-range shot, according to the warrant. Kodoriov allegedly inquired about sniper rifles and said he didn’t care if he lost his life in an assassination attempt.

Kodoriov, 21, is a strict Muslim from Uzbekistan who previously supported Islamic extremists, an FBI source said, according to the warrant.

The Justice Department, in announcing the indictment, said it vindicates the government's "proactive and preventive" approaches to such threats.

“We are constantly engaged with partners throughout the law enforcement community in order to keep the overall security picture in focus and to stay ahead of any emerging threats," said Roy Sexton, Secret Service special agent in charge.

A person who knew Kodoriov at the Oak Mountain Lodge said he was “completely shocked” about the allegations.

“I’m happy that he’s caught,” Sukru Icimsoy, the lodge's manager, said. “When law enforcement comes for a person here, I’d rather them stay with law enforcement than with me.”

Kodoriov came to the United States in June 2009 and remained in the country on a student visa, according to the statement. His student visa was revoked April 1, 2010, for failure to enroll in school, according to the arrest affidavit.

If convicted, he faces maximum sentences of five years in prison on each count of threatening the president and 10 years in prison on each of the weapons counts.

Somalia's al-Shabaab group has banned samosas after ruling the popular snacks are 'offensive' and too Christian.

Militant Islamist fighters last week used vehicles mounted with loudspeakers to announce the bizarre ruling across the regions of the war-torn country it controls.

The extremist group has offered no official explanation for the ban on the triangular snacks, which are commonly cooked up and served across the Horn of Africa.

The bizarre ban comes just days after militants linked to Al-Qaida in Somalia refused to let some aid workers into the country as tens of thousands suffered in the nation's massive famine.

Aid groups including the UN Food Programme say they were not given permission by militants to provide aid in the country, where it has been warned that 800,000 children could die from starvation.

It is now thought islamist militants have taken offence at the three-sided samosa's supposed resemblance to symbol of the Christian Holy Trinity.

Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper today reported that residents of the Somali town of Afgoye, 20 miles south of the capital Mogadishu, had confirmed the samosa ban had been imposed.

The fried snacks, usually filled with spicy meat or vegetables, have been served for centuries in the East African country.

But the newspaper said locals believed al-Shabaab leaders had decided the triangular shape was not compatible with their strict version of Islam.

The unexpected move means Somalis could now expect to be punished if caught cooking, buying or eating samosas, known locally as sambusas.

The ban is the latest in a string of authoritarian rulings introduced by al-Shabaab, a violent Islamist organisation linked to al-Qaeda and classified by several countries as a terrorist group.. . .
The reported ban on samosas is the latest in a string of bizarre rulings from the organisation, which has been likened to the Afghan Taliban.

Earlier this year the group introduced a blanket ban on the playing or watching of football.

It has also previously ordered men to grow beards and warned it will take action against anyone caught wearing tight-fitting clothes.

Her taxi driver husband, 29, told officers his wife was the principal carer of the twins and he agreed that the only thing their daughter had was a runny nose, the court heard.

The court heard that when the baby arrived at the hospital, she was described by her parents to doctors as being the healthier and smaller of the identical twins.

However, prosecutors said the girl that died was actually the bigger of the two twins, known in court as Twin M and Twin A for legal reasons.

Joe Boyd, prosecuting, said: "The living twin's progress is consistent with that of Girl A, while the dead twin's progress corresponds to Girl M.

"Growth charts for both twins make it clear that the parents have at some stage swapped the babies. They have very probably done so to seek to conceal the mounting injuries being suffered by the child who died - always the bigger twin but, for some reason, rejected and abused by them."

The couple denied any swapping had taken place and the jury was told it did not have to believe the twin swap theory to return guilty verdicts.

Det Insp Pete Broome, of Lancashire Police, said: "I can only describe this as a bestial crime - that is what they are, beastly.

"The only two people who know if these babies were swapped over are the parents. Therein lies some of the worst aspects of this case because the surviving twin may never know who she really was at birth."

He added: "That must be the most corrosive aspect to come out of this case.

"The prospect of not doing anything to an injury like that to a child's nose is abhorrent and I cannot understand anybody worthy of the name parents could leave a child suffering in that manner."

Mr Justice Irwin adjourned the case for pre-sentence and psychiatric reports on the couple.

He added: "As you know, this was a bad case of child cruelty.

"However, I want to know as much as possible about it before deciding the length of sentence."

Eight persons died, 50 shops and 28 vehicles were destroyed while many wounded in Saturday's bomb explosion in a northeastern city of Maiduguri in Nigeria when the Boko Haram Islamic sect threw an explosive at a military patrol vehicle.

Though the Joint Task Force troops deployed by the Nigerian government to the north eastern state of Borno had claimed only three of its soldiers sustained injuries, residents maintained eight people actually died in the explosion and the ensuing gun battle between the Boko Haram men and the military troops.

Sources told Xinhua said some members of the Islamic sect had thrown an explosive at a patrol vehicle of the troops in Budum, a settlement located behind the Shehu of Borno Palace.

The Shehu, a popular Nigerian king, is the vice chairman of the Islamic Council in Nigeria, next to the Sultan of Sokoto.

Batima Bukar, a 45-year-old victim of the incident told Xinhua that his hand was broken when he attempted to save an old woman who was almost trapped in the area during the shoot out with the sect.

He disclosed that two corpses were found at the Budum Market roundabout on Sunday morning while another two were discovered at about 6 a.m. local time same day adjacent the area.

Another resident who craved anonymity told Xinhua that she lost her husband and a neighbor, adding that while her husband was hit by stray bullet, their neighbor was a victim of the blast.

The Saturday incident has compelled many of the residents of the area to flee their homes.But the Joint Task Force (JTF) through its spokesperson Col Hassan Mohammed insisted nobody died in the incident.

Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the worsening security situation in north of Nigeria was disturbing.

The agency the standard of living of the people was daily deteriorating due to the inability of the residents to engage in their economic activities since the Boko Haram uprising heightened in the state.

Northeast zonal information officer for the agency Ibrahim Farinloye said the Boko Haram crisis and face off with the security agencies has brought untold hardship on the people.

He said the federal government through NEMA and other humanitarian actors was reaching out to all the distressed people in the communities in order to cushion the adverse effects of the crisis on the people while equally ease the financial constraint of distressed Muslims for the month of Ramadan.

He disclosed that the agency had been directed by the Federal Government to commence comprehensive relief package to reach out to the distressed people irrespective of religious, ethnic or political affiliation in their present places of residence.

The exercise which was expected to commence on Monday would focus on residents at Abbaganaram, Kaleri, Simari, Dala, Budum, London chiki as well as various villages in and around Maiduguri.

Moscow’s most wanted Islamist militant Doku Umarov warned that Russia would be the target of a newly strengthened insurgency in a video posted on an Islamist affiliated website on Monday.

A decade after federal forces drove a separatist government from power in Chechnya, Moscow is struggling to contain an insurgency that seeks to carve an Islamic state out of Russia’s North Caucasus region.

He has also promised a year of “blood and tears” for Russia ahead of parliamentary elections in December and a presidential poll in 2012.

Security will be a main priority leading up to the elections for both President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who led the country into a second devastating war against Chechen rebels in 1999.

In the 17-minute-long video Umarov, who styles himself the Emir of the Caucasus, says his insurgency has been strengthened by overcoming recent divisions that saw three high-level militants split from his Caucasus Emirate last year.

“We want to assure you that our jihad is starting a new chapter, inshallah,” he said wearing camouflage and an Islamic skullcap and sporting his trademark ginger beard in the video posted on Kavkaz Center www.kavkazcenter.com.

“We are calling on all mujahideen in the Caucasus and in other territories so that all differences stay in the past and that all our strength, will and power is directed at attesting to the word of Allah and against our enemy.”

At the end of the video he embraces the high-ranking militants – Hussein Gakayev and Aslambek Vadalov – who had split with Umarov.

Their allegiance to Umarov will likely consolidate authority within the insurgency, which has suffered from divisions and power struggles.

The United States has offered a $5 million reward for information leading up to the arrest of the militant.

The third militant who had renounced allegiance to Umarov was killed by security forces in April.

Its Environment and Consumer Affairs Bureau chairman Mohd Firdaus Jaafar said the operators should appreciate the leniency extended by the state government but they should abide by the guidelines, which are expected to be imposed to prevent any Muslim from patronising their outlets.

The wing had also supported the party leadership's decision to rescind an earlier recommendation by the Kedah Government to ban such outlets from operating during Ramadan.

Mohd Firdaus hoped the operators could uphold the new guidelines imposed by the state government.

He said this after presenting a memorandum of support to Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak's press secretary Helmi Khalid at the former's office here.

PKR supreme council member Ahmad Kassim, who is also the Kuala Kedah MP, also presented a similar memorandum on behalf of his party to Azizan.

On another note, Mohd Firdaus said the movement also planned to submit another memorandum to Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, which underlines support for the state's move to ban any form of gambling

Commentary: Anders Breivik, post-modern Crusader

Sometimes the life of a blogger is fraught with tedium and annoyance. It can also be touched simultaneously by profound sadness. I’ve been steeping in a brew concocted from these ingredients, perusing the 1518-page “2083” manifesto of the Norwegian mass murderer so you don’t have to.

As My Pet Jawa reports, parts of “2083” were copied from the Unabomber’s manifesto. But that gives a very incomplete impression of what makes this guy tick. The overarching theme of “2083” is that he, and his confreres in the “PCCTS Knights Templar,” are modern-day Crusaders. They are not what most other Christians would call Christian; Anders is very explicit that having a relationship with Jesus Christ is not his thing. He’s a “cultural” Christian, and the PCCTS Knights Templar (expansion of PCCTS below) are happy to accept members who are, in Breivik’s words, “Christian agnostics” and “Christian atheists.” He uses “Christian” as a modifier signifying primarily Western/European cultural identity; he does speak of brotherhood with African and Asian Christians, but the context of the references is clearly cultural.

Tellingly, there is not one reference in “2083” to the power of spiritual Christianity deriving from the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For spiritual Christians, that’s the bottom line. It’s what you say, what you talk about, your confession of faith. Breivik doesn’t allude to it at all. Again, it’s not his thing. He doesn’t think of Christianity as transforming hearts and lives for the better. He thinks of it as a positive, unifying symbol-set, one that evokes the energy, reason, and strength of the traditional culture of Europe.

A majority of so called agnostics and atheists in Europe are cultural conservative Christians without even knowing it. So what is the difference between cultural Christians and religious Christians?

If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God then you are a religious Christian. Myself and many more like me do not necessarily have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God. We do however believe in Christianity as a cultural, social, identity and moral platform. This makes us Christian. (p. 1307)

And this:

I’m not going to pretend I’m a very religious person as that would be a lie. I’ve always been very pragmatic and influenced by my secular surroundings and environment. In the past, I remember I used to think;

“Religion is a crutch for weak people. What is the point in believing in a higher power if you have confidence in yourself!? Pathetic.”

Perhaps this is true for many cases. Religion is a crutch for many weak people and many embrace religion for self serving reasons as a source for drawing mental strength (to feed their weak emotional state f example during illness, death, poverty etc.). Since I am not a hypocrite, I’ll say directly that this is my agenda as well. However, I have not yet felt the need to ask God for strength, yet… (p. 1344)

And this:

If you want to fight for the cross and die under the “cross of the martyrs” it’s required that you are a practising Christian, a Christian agnostic or a Christian atheist (cultural Christian). The cultural factors are more important than your personal relationship with God, Jesus or the holy spirit.

…

Choosing to fight under the banner of the cross, does not constitute that you have to reject your Odinistic heritage in any way or form.

…

As a cultural Christian, I believe Christendom is essential for cultural reasons.

…

As this is a cultural war, our definition of being a Christian does not necessarily constitute that you are required to have a personal relationship with God or Jesus. Being a Christian can mean many things;

- That you believe in and want to protect Europe’s Christian cultural heritage.

The European cultural heritage, our norms (moral codes and social structures included), our traditions and our modern political systems are based on Christianity – Protestantism, Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and the legacy of the European enlightenment (reason is the primary source and legitimacy for authority).

It is not required that you have a personal relationship with God or Jesus in order to fight for our Christian cultural heritage and the European way. In many ways, our modern societies and European secularism is a result of European Christendom and the enlightenment. It is therefore essential to understand the difference between a “Christian fundamentalist theocracy” (everything we do not want) and a secular European society based on our Christian cultural heritage (what we do want).

So no, you don’t need to have a personal relationship with God or Jesus to fight for our Christian cultural heritage. It is enough that you are a Christian-agnostic or a Christian atheist (an atheist who wants to preserve at least the basics of the European Christian cultural legacy (Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter)).

The PCCTS, Knights Templar is therefore not a religious organisation but rather a Christian “culturalist” military order.

(C)reating a religious order would be counter-productive as a majority of Europe’s armed resistance fighters are agnostics, atheists or relatively secular Christians. The organisation is therefore considered a moderate Christian identity organisation and not a religious order. (p. 1360-on)

Predictably, Breivik invokes the Nietzschean complaint that Christianity is too weak and self-effacing for its own good:

The Judeo-Christian religions played an important and influential role in building the once mighty West but we also discovered that these religions contained a serious flaw that has sewed the seeds of the suicidal demise of the indigenous peoples of Western Europe and our cultures. This flaw was identified by the brilliant German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who described it as “an inversion of morality” whereby the weak, the poor, the meek, the oppressed and the wretched are virtuous and blessed by God whereas the strong, the wealthy, the noble and the powerful are the immoral and damned by the vengeful almighty Yahweh for eternity.

Nietzsche, with great insight and perception, stated that Christianity would be abandoned en masse in the twentieth century but that Westerners would still cling to this inversion of morality. I then described how Marxists and Liberals exploit this inversion of morality by creating large numbers of “victim groups“, groups who form minorities in Western society but whose “victim status” is used to dictate morality to the majority. In Western – European – societies, the weak now lead the strong, indeed, the game being played in these societies is not to make the weak strong it is to make the strong weak. (p. 391)

But he despises National Socialists (referred to by the initials NS throughout the text) and has only negative things to say about Hitler. In fact, Breivik devotes pages to arguing against the Nazi perspective on cultural unity and power. Breivik’s unifying idea and symbology are the Crusades and the Knights Templar. What he wants Christian Europe (and indeed, all Christendom) to get back to is his concept of the church militant in the Crusades era: a church that forms the cultural core of society and motivates the people to – if you will – defend Christianity forward. His plan for a revitalized cultural-Christian Europe involves reclaiming Lebanon for Christianity (yes, this figures very large in the manifesto), supporting Christians in Africa and Asia in driving Muslims and cultural relativists out of their lands, and helping Israeli Jews build the Third Temple in Jerusalem.

All his concepts are political and militant. He advocates holding a “Great Christian Congress” (p. 1136) at which the new Knights Templar-based authorities of Europe reorganize the church for its own good. Protestantism has been an unmitigated disaster, and needs to be winnowed out. (Breivik was baptized a Protestant but admires the political history, ritual, organization, and aesthetics of the Catholic Church.) The church will be assigned in his restored cultural order to a number of tasks, and given some important powers, but one thing it will not have is the autonomy to evolve away from his militant ideal for it.

The PCCTS Knights Templar are named after the original Knights Templar: the “Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici,” or Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. An anonymous group of Europeans met in London in 2002 to re-found the order, and Breivik was present at the creation. Its program for reclaiming Europe and the world is oriented on the year 2083, presumably because that year will mark the 400th anniversary of the Battle of Vienna.

And it is a warlike program, to say the least. Cultural Marxists (e.g., the people he killed in the government offices), along with Muslims, will be given an ultimatum to embrace cultural Christianity by 1 January 2020, or be killed or driven out. In the aftermath of the ultimatum, WMD will be used on them. Breivik devotes pages of text to various methods of acquiring chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons: from the existing governments of Europe, from crime syndicates, directly from Islamist states and terrorist groups (because why not?).

He justifies this bloodthirsty program on the basis of the indulgences granted to “all future Crusaders” by Pope Urban II in 1095; on the “duty to crusade” which he reads into the church’s canon law; and on the calls of subsequent popes to mount new crusades. (p. 1324)

Have I mentioned that Breivik is an avid player of World of Warcraft? He reports taking an entire year off from paid employment to play it full time. In this and other ways he is very much a product of modern Western culture – and that is where the profound sadness comes in. He has reached the age of 32 with an obvious sense of rootlessness, a set of grievances against society (some of them justified), and no spiritual or emotional defenses against resorting to a kinetic Manichaeism in his approach to politics and life. Here is part of his account of his teenage years in Oslo:

We used to hang out with GSV crew, or B-Gjengen as they are popularly called today, a Muslim Pakistani gang, quite violent even back then. “Gang alliances” was a part of our everyday life at that point and assured that you avoided threats and harassment. Alliances with the right people guaranteed safe passage everywhere without the risk of being subdued and robbed (Jizya), beaten or harassed. We had close ties with B-Gjengen (B-Gang) and A-Gjengen (A-Gang), both Muslim Pakistani gangs through my best friend Arsalan who was also a Pakistani. Even at that time, the Muslim gangs were very dominating in Oslo East and in inner city Oslo. They even arranged “raids” in Oslo West occasionally, subduing the native youths (kuffars) and collecting Jizya from them (in the form of cell phones, cash, sunglasses etc.). I remember they systematically harassed, robbed and beat ethnic Norwegian youngsters who were unfortunate enough to not have the right affiliations. Muslim youths called the ethnic Norwegians “poteter” (potatoes, a derogatory term used by Muslims to describe ethnic Norwegians). These people occasionally raped the so called “potato whores”. In Oslo, as an ethnic Norwegian youth aged 14-18 you were restricted if you didn’t have affiliations to the Muslim gangs. Your travel was restricted to your own neighbourhoods in Oslo West and certain central points in the city. Unless you had Muslim contacts you could easily be subject to harassment, beatings and robbery. Our alliances with the Muslim gangs were strictly seen as a necessity for us, at least for me. We, however, due to our alliances had the freedom of movement. As a result of our alliances we were allowed to have a relaxing and secure position on the West side of Oslo among our age group. Think of it as being local “warlords” for certain “kuffar areas”, which were regulated by the only dominant force, Muslim gangs collaberating with anarcho-Marxist networks.

Many of these groups claim to be tolerant and anti-fascist, but yet, I have never met anyone as hypocritical, racist and fascist as the people whom I used to call friends and allies. The media glorifies them while they wreck havoc across the city, rob and plunder. Yet, any attempts their victims do to consolidate are harshly condemned by all aspects of the cultural establishment as racism and Nazism. I have witnessed the double standards and hypocrisy with my own eyes, it is hard to ignore. I was one of the protected “potatoes”, having friends and allies in the Jihadi-racist gangs such as the A and B gang and many other Muslim gangs.

I gradually became appalled by the mentality, actions and hypocrisy of what he calls the “Marxist-Jihadi youth” movement of Oslo disguised under more socially acceptable brands such as: “SOS Rasisme”, “Youth against Racism”, Blitz who literally hijacked segments of the hiphop movement and used it as a front for recruitment.

I have personally heard of and witnessed hundreds of Jihadi-racist attacks, more than 90% of them aimed at helpless Norwegian youth (who themselves are brought up to be “suicidally” tolerant and therefore are completely unprepared mentally for attacks such as these). This happens while the Marxist networks in the hiphop movement and the cultural establishment silently and indirectly condone it. There is absolutely no political will to ensure that justice is served on behalf of these victims. I remember at one point thinking; “This system makes me sick”. (p. 1389)

Breivik’s complaint is that what he was supposed to believe in – who he was supposed to be, as a member of a culture – offered him no protection, safety, or dignity. He goes on to recount, one by one, the occasions on which he was directly attacked or threatened in the years after he broke with his “gang alliances” (starting on p. 1393). He also observes, matter-of-factly, that a natural-selection process kicked in after the mid-teenage years, when students are channeled into academic or technical/trades education. The Muslim teens almost all went into vocational training (or left school entirely), which meant they and the ethnic Norwegians were no longer in the same schools, and no longer had to meet in the same neighborhoods.

The void where the reasons for cultural unity should be is a real source of sorrow here, at least for me. Breivik blames it, in effect, on “cultural Marxism” (his cultural commentary is all derivative): the process of tearing down the traditional shibboleths of a culture in order to leave populations mentally defenseless against collectivism. And this isn’t invalid, as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. The problem for Europe isn’t so much what it no longer is, as that there is no compelling vision for what it ought to be.

That is most clearly apparent in the video Breivik posted to explain the “2083” concept. One of the first things that struck me in watching the video was that it seemed curiously American in tone. Breivik’s imagery for depicting the downfall of Europe includes thematic “traffic signs,” which of course are a universal phenomenon, but also shows the boy “Billy” from the Family Circus cartoon representing Europe – clearly as a fresh-faced, defenseless youth – and depicts the suicide of the West via a caricature of Uncle Sam with a pistol in his mouth. In the text, at the inflection point of the video when it transitions from lament to a plan for the future, Breivik quotes Thomas Jefferson on the tree of liberty being refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Yet the “2083” manifesto is very Euro-centric. It is not about the US, or the distinctly American political idea, and it deals with the Americas as a whole very little. Breivik clearly sees Europe as having a meaningful identity of its own, but he can’t come up with an identifiably European image to convey that as a modern reality. As the video crescendos, he harks back to the Middle Ages, lining up one image after another of armored knights in battle (or in heroic stances). His hall of European fame is a series of military commanders who fought against Muslim armies in centuries past (the most recent being Czar Nicholas I in the 19th century).

These images are not compelling to conservatives in the US, and I don’t see any evidence that they are the organizing idea for classical-liberal thinkers or political parties in Europe. There is literally no mainstream interest in refighting the Crusades or wrestling the church down and making her culturally militant on the model of the Middle Ages. There is a varying level of political engagement among Christians: some are very left-leaning, others are conservative (or liberal in the classical European sense), many of both kinds have little interest in politics, and others find politics important and rewarding. Anders Breivik’s model of a post-modern Knight Templar resonates not at all with the actual beliefs and stances of conservatives, Christians, or conservative Christians.

That is partly because Breivik seeks a form of tribal symbology and validation that modern society has grown comparatively comfortable without. Mainstream classical-liberalism in Europe doesn’t offer the mystical power of either Norse gods or a Latin-speaking church with its own army of knights. These symbols of cultural connection to the transcendent haven’t been Christianity’s reality for centuries; and in politics, there has been a very long trend toward prosaic bureaucratic consultation, which no one envisions operating outside of. There’s no way to torture modern Christianity or modern social or political conservatism into the Crusader mold – which is why Breivik had to find his calling elsewhere.

We can hope – I certainly do – that the flurry of mistargeted denunciations from the political left will die down quickly. All you have to do to see that conservatives and Christians are not responsible for Anders Breivik is read 1500 pages of his musings. Neither Democrats nor Republicans, nor any particular religious denomination, political party, or school of thought in Europe, is “responsible” for Breivik; he did his own research and made his own choices, and he had alternatives. He is undoubtedly not the only young European who wishes for a more compelling, inspiring, successful, and victorious cultural idea of Europe to give his life meaning. But he is the only one who decided to blow up a building and go on a shooting rampage.

They also confiscated a drug cache of 2000 kilograms of poppy, six kilograms of heroin, 50 kilograms of hashish and 150 kilograms of morphine, as well as 20 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, which is used as an explosive component.

Arab world "insulted" by suspicion of Islamic terrorism in Norway attacks

Particularly in an attack of such magnitude, the suspicion of involvement by al-Qaeda or a similar group was eminently reasonable: the majority of the terrorist attacks and counter-terror arrests in Europe in recent years have involved jihadist operations. The bomb was comparable not only to the Oklahoma City bomb, but also to those used in embassy bombings in Tanzania and Nairobi. The use of multiple attacks and a focus on symbolic targets are an al-Qaeda trademark, and deceit through the impersonation of military personnel or law enforcement has been a standard operating procedure particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq. Finally, a jihadist group did briefly claim credit, and that was newsworthy to report. When that fell through, it was also promptly reported.

But there is one other noteworthy angle to the period in which the attack was plausibly speculated to be the work of jihadists: When people thought it was Muslims, the rationalization mill went into overdrive. Comments sections on news reports were riddled with pleas and demands to consider "underlying causes," such as Norway's involvement in campaigns in Afghanistan and Libya that have resulted in the loss of Muslim lives. The implication was that Norway had done it to itself for its treatment of Muslims, and for allying itself with America.

By contrast, no one on whose behalf the bastard Breivik claimed to act has engaged in a comparable defense of or deflection of the blame for his crimes. There was no victim-hood narrative to act as an obstacle to condemning him and his actions properly and unequivocally. "Arab world outraged by Norway attack allegations," by Roee Nahmias for YNet News, July 24:

Less than two days after the fact, everybody knows who carried out the shocking massacre that took place in Norway onFriday: Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian driven by extremist right-wing ideology. But before Breivik's apprehension, the local and international media alluded to an extremist Islamists link for the double attack on Oslo and Utoya island – triggering the rage of many Arabs and Muslims worldwide.. . .Shortly after the extent of the tragedy became known, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which counts 58 nations among its members, released a statement condemning the event, calling it a "terrorist attack."

The OIC and other Muslim groups were probably just as likely gearing up for damage control on the same suspicion of jihadist involvement before word emerged of a non-Muslim attacker, just as Muslims were strategizing online for a so-called "sh*t-storm" they anticipated in the media in the event that the Virginia Tech shooter had turned out to be Muslim.

European anti-Islamist lobby group barred suspected Norway killer from forum

A fringe European anti-Islamist lobby group said on Saturday the man suspected of Norway's gun and bomb massacre had tried to join their Facebook group on the Internet but had been rejected over his apparent neo-Nazi links.

Anders Gravers, founder of Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE), said Anders Behring Breivik had made the application around 18 months ago.

Breivik said in an Internet posting in December 2009 (here) he had had discussions with SIOE, but Gravers said his organisation had no record of this.

"He has never been in contact with us and he has never given us any advice," Gravers told Reuters.

But he said it was possible Breivik had attended one of its demonstrations.

He said an SIOE member in the Faroe Islands had checked Breivik's Facebook "friends" on the social media site when he tried to join and discovered one who used a picture of Danish neo-Nazi leader Jonni Hansen as his profile picture.

"He advised us not to allow this guy to join or be able to post on the Facebook wall (message page)," said SIOE co-founder Stephen Gash.

SOIE, which says it has 30,000 followers on Facebook, was founded by Gravers and Gash in 2007 with the aim of "preventing Islam becoming a dominant political force in Europe."

Gash said the organisation is unpolitical and opposes both Islam and Nazism.

It held its first demonstration in 2007 in Brussels on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks on New York, despite authorities banning the event.

British Museum mounts major exhibition on Hajj

The British Museum is set to hold its first major exhibition dedicated to the Muslim Hajj, the UK body has said, in a release also made available in Arabic. The nearly three-month long exhibition, titled, ‘Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam’, will hold at the 250-year-old museum from January 26 to April 15, 2012.

The exhibition will examine the significance of the pilgrimage as one of the Five Pillars of Islam, while also considering how it has developed in the course of history.

The Hajj show will bring together objects from different collections, including significant antique pieces as well as contemporary artworks which reveal the influence of Hajj on the Islamic faith and its believers.

The museum’s director, Neil Macgregor, who announced details of the show on Tuesday, said it would enable a global audience to deepen their understanding of the significance and history of the hajj.

“It is special in being the only aspect of Islam which non-Muslims cannot take part in. It is not merely a spiritual phenomenon, it has become a cultural phenomenon. The museum has always sought to present a connection between faith and society. It [the hajj] is a phenomenon that needs to be better understood than it is. It has become very clear to us that we’ve been looking to put on exhibitions about things people want to know about – such as Iran and Afghanistan – and questions people want to explore.”

Macgregor called the organisation of the hajj “one of the great administrative achievements in the world” and said the exhibition would show the logistics behind the pilgrimage, which annually attracts up to four million people to the holy sites of Mecca.

In addition to the rare objects on display, drawn from private and public collections, there will be more prosaic items such as a ticket for a Thomas Cook hajj ship, which used to operate services across the Indian Ocean, a hajj proxy certificate, issued to those who are unable to perform the pilgrimage and have asked friends or family to perform it on their behalf, and pilgrims’ diaries.

Venetia Porter, the curator for the exhibition, said: “The exhibition is about a journey and life-changing experience, a journey that has one purpose only – to reach the heart of Islam. We want people to understand what this experience has meant.”

Although the preparation and rituals behind the pilgrimage have remained largely unchanged for 1,400 years, Mecca itself is evolving at a dizzying pace.

Last month, in Jeddah, Saudi officials unveiled a £16bn development plan for the city, increasing its pilgrim capacity, strengthening its transport links and overhauling its appearance.

The government’s commission for tourism and antiquities said revenue from tourism in 2010 would reach $17.6bn, then almost double again by 2015.

A $6bn, 276-mile rail link will connect Mecca with Medina, the home and burial place of Muhammad, while a multi-billion-dollar upgrade will increase the capacity of Medina airport from three million to 12 million passengers a year.

King AbdulAziz International airport in Jeddah will also expand – accommodating 30 million travellers by 2012 to 80 million when finished – and the total number of visitors to Mecca and Medina could rise to almost 17 million by 2025.

The news of an explosion in the Norwegian government quarter was cheered as "good news" by Al-Qaida followers on Islamic Internet forums. "You don't have much more time to pull your soldiers out of Afghanistan or you'll see blood in the streets", wrote one user.

US: Muslim Cabbies Demand Right To Veto Strip Club Ads

There's a holy war brewing between cab drivers and the owners of taxi medallions who lease the medallions to drivers. According to Taxi and Limousine Commission rules, whoever owns the costly medallion (they currently go for $600,000 and up!) gets to call the shots on the advertising that goes on the roof of the cab. But cabbies—especially the ones who own their vehicles but still lease their medallions—are calling on the TLC to give them veto power over ads with objectionable content, like ones for strip clubs.

At the monthly TLC meeting yesterday, taxi driver Mohan Singh complained that his grandkids noticed a strip club ad on top of his cab and started asking uncomfortable questions, the Post reports. "My children ask me, 'What is this? I want to go to a gentlemen's club?' " Singh recalled. "What should I answer?" Another hack with a Flashdancers ad on top of his taxi tells the tabloid, "I don't like women exposing themselves sexually on top of my business."

TLC Commissioner David Yassky said yesterday he's inclined to permit drivers who own their taxis but lease medallions to toss the sexy women off their business, and there will be a vote in September. "It's made a lot of Muslims uncomfortable," one hack explains. But medallion owners are strongly opposed, arguing that they have to cover the costs and liabilities for the cabs, so they should get the final say on advertising. Of course, this isn't the first battle fought over strip club advertising; in 2009 Queens residents fought a long battle to get rid of a billboard on Rockaway Boulevard advertising a gentlemen's club.

New Saudi Fatwa Defends Pedophilia as 'Marriage'

Muslim "child-marriage"—euphemism for pedophilia—is making headlines again, at least in Arabic media: Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, a prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia's highest religious council, just issued a fatwa asserting that there is no minimum age for marriage, and that girls can be married "even if they are in the cradle."

Appearing in Saudi papers on July 13, the fatwa complains that "Uninformed interference with Sharia rulings by the press and journalists is on the increase, posing dire consequences to society, including their interference with the question of marriage to small girls who have not reached maturity, and their demand that a minimum age be set for girls to marry."

Fawzan insists that nowhere does Sharia set an age limit for marrying girls: like countless Muslim scholars before him, he relies on Koran 65:4, which discusses marriage to females who have not yet begun menstruating (i.e., are prepubescent) and the fact that Muhammad, Islam's role model, married Aisha when she was 6-years-old, "consummating" the marriage—or, in modern parlance, raping her—when she was 9.

The point of the Saudi fatwa, however, is not that girls as young as 9 can have sex, based on Muhammad's example, but rather that there is no age limit whatsoever; the only question open to consideration is whether the girl is physically capable of handling her husband/rapist.

US Army: Muslim soldier charged with child porn AWOL

A Muslim soldier from Fort Campbell, Ky., who won conscientious objector status but then faced a court-martial after being charged with possessing child pornography has gone AWOL, an Army spokesman said Wednesday.

Pfc. Naser Abdo, 21, has been absent without leave since the July 4th weekend, said Rick Rzepka, spokesman for the base that straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee state line.

"I know that he's safe, but other than that, that's all I'm at liberty to share with people," said Abdo's attorney, James Branum.

Abdo, an infantry soldier, had applied for conscientious objector status last year after he decided his Muslim beliefs would prohibit his service in any war. The Deputy Assistant Secretary, Army Review Boards Agency, recommended in June he be separated from the Army as a conscientious objector.

The discharge was soon delayed because of the criminal charge, and Rzepka said an Article 32 hearing last month recommended Abdo for a court-martial. Abdo said last month that he thought he had been charged with a crime because he was seeking to leave the Army as a conscientious objector.

Abdo now faces additional charges related to going AWOL, Rzepka said.

Branum said Abdo didn't want him to make public statements in this situation.

"If and when Abdo goes back, I'll still be on his side helping him," Branum said.

Australia: Sharia law working as ‘shadow legal system’ to promote polygamy and underage marriages

The Sharia law has become a 'shadow legal system' within Australia, endorsing polygamous and underage marriages that are outlawed under

the country's legal systems.

According to new research conducted by legal academics Ann Black and Kerrie Sadiq, a system of "legal pluralism" based on sharia law "abounds" in modern Australia, with religious ceremonies validating multiple wives or even underage ones.

According to the research, some Australian Muslims have been complying with the shadow system of religious law as well as mainstream law, News.com.au reports.

The research, which will be published next week, says that the wider community has been "oblivious to the legal pluralism that abounds in this country".

Sharia is based on Muslim teachings in the Koran but is open to interpretation by different religious leaders.

It has potential cultural conflicts with Australian law over points including alcohol, marriage and charging of interest on loans.

While there has been a push to adopt sharia here the Attorney General says existing laws win out.

Pakistan: Donkey declared ‘Kari’ and Honor killed

SUKKUR: Incredible though it may sound, a donkey was declared ‘Kari’ and shot dead here in a remote area on Monday. The Jirga imposed 110,000 rupees fine on the alleged ‘Karo’.

The reports said that in Village Ghahi Khan Jatoi, a villager Ghazi Khan alias Malang shot dead his donkey on being ‘Kari’ with Sikandar Ali alias Deedo. He attempted to kill Sikander too but the alleged Karo managed to escape and surrendered himself to an influential person of the area.

Sources said the influential person summoned both the parties and imposed 110,000 rupees fine on the Karo. They said Sikander and his family were forced to pay Rs 50,000 on the spot and the remaining amount in two installments.

The sources added that the alleged Karo pleaded innocence at the Jirga, but the Jirga members paid no attention to it. Sikander’s family said he paid Rs 50,000 to save his life otherwise he would have been killed.

Salafi group claims responsibility over Gaza rocket fire

An extremist Muslim group said Monday that it was behind recent rocket attacks into Israel from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The Salafi group, Altawhid wal Jihad (monotheism and holy war), said it has fired 13 missiles into Israel in the last two weeks.

The rockets mostly landed in open areas without causing casualties.

In a statement, the Qaeda-inspired group said that an Israeli aerial raid killed two of its members when they were firing rockets.

The group vowed to continue the attacks, criticizing Hamas for trying to impose an unofficial ceasefire that has notably held since the end of Israel's major offensive here in January 2009. "Our Jihad is going on despite frustrating calls," a statement by the group said.

Israel responded to the rocket fire by airstrikes against training sites for Hamas and smuggling tunnels beneath Gaza's southern border with Egypt.

The latest Israeli attack was early Monday. It targeted a group of Hamas militants and wounded two of them. Israel said that it hit a group of gunmen who were planning to attack Israeli targets.

Tunisia: 'War' Declared on Atheist "God nor Master" Director

A real war has been declared on the Tunisian director Nadia El Feni, who recently presented his new and openly secular film "God nor Master". In fact the director himself is openly atheist, and today he was faced with the umpteenth report (at least three so far, filed at different prosecutor's offices in the country) against him, this time filed by a woman lawyer, Sahbia Ben Haj Salem, who informed TAP about her initiative.

The lawyer has asked the judiciary system to indict El Feni based on the law article that punishes material that can "harm public order and good morals." If found guilty, the director could be sentenced to six month up to five years in prison. The lawyer has also taken legal steps against the Culture Ministry, which has authorised the screening of the film.

Muslim extremist close to the Salafis have protested violently against "God nor Master". They have also threatened to kill people who have seen the film.

Authorities avert "large terrorist attack" in Moscow

Russia's top security official said on Monday that authorities had averted a "large terrorist attack" in the Moscow area by militants armed with homemade bombs and other weapons.

Russian authorities frequently claim to have foiled attacks by militants from the North Caucasus, a volatile region plagued by an Islamist insurgency, but claims to have foiled large-scale assaults targeting Moscow are rare.

"Literally several days ago ... a large terrorist attack was averted at the preparation stage in the Moscow area," Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov told President Dmitry Medvedev in televised comments.

He said four suspects from the mainly Muslim North Caucasus had been detained and that accomplices had been identified.

Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, president from 2000-2008, have struggled to contain the Islamist insurgency, and the Kremlin is nervous about possible attacks ahead of December parliamentary elections and a March presidential vote.

Medvedev and Putin, still seen as Russia's paramount leader, have suggested that one of them will run for president.

Addressing the Kremlin leader, Bortnikov said the suspects had planned to target "crowded facilities and transport infrastructure" and that security officers had confiscated homemade bombs, other weapons and a map with an attack plan.

Insurgent leader Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed 37 people at Moscow's busiest airport in January and twin bombings on the Moscow metro that killed 40 in March 2010.

Australia: Intruders use Shariah Law to punish convert to Islam

A Sydney man who was held down on his bed and whipped up to 40 times by strangers had recently converted to Islam and was reportedly being punished for drinking.

The 31-year-old was asleep in his apartment in Silverwater, in Sydney's west, when he woke to find four bearded men in his bedroom about 1am (AEST) yesterday.

Three of the intruders restrained him on the bed while the fourth man used a cable to lash him 40 times.

The attack lasted about 30 minutes and left the man covered in welts, the Seven Network reported today.

The man reportedly told police he had only recently converted to Islam and that fundamental Wahabi Muslims were punishing him for having a few drinks with friends.

Members of Sydney's Muslim community have condemned the attack.

"This criminal act has no place in Islam. As Australian Muslims we are required to follow Australian law, not take the law into our own individual hands," Ahmed Kilami, from the Muslim Village, told the Seven Network.

"I hope these guys are caught and face the full force of the law."

The victim has moved out of his home but hopes what happens to him will not distort people's view of his adopted religion, the network said.

Malaysian media claims Jewish plot after rally

Malaysia's government-linked media has claimed that foreign Jewish groups might try to meddle in this Muslim-majority country by supporting an opposition-backed push to reform electoral laws.

Political activists who recently staged a huge demonstration say the accusation is an irresponsible attempt to discredit them through appeals to religious prejudice.

The Malay-language Utusan Malaysia newspaper said in an editorial Monday that Malaysians "cannot allow anyone, especially the Jews, to interfere secretly in this country's business." It offered no evidence and named no specific group.

Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration cracked down July 9 on at least 20,000 demonstrators who marched in Kuala Lumpur demanding more transparency in electoral laws.

Islamic ‘Charities’ Funding Jihad in Cambodia

NGOs with direct ties to terrorist organisations in the Middle East had been using “massive donations” to encourage radicalisation in Cham Muslim communities, though with limited success, a United States embassy cable from last year alleges.

A cable released by WikiLeaks this week raised concerns that “very real” efforts had been made to perpetuate a terrorist safe haven in Cambodia following a 2002 to 2003 visit by “Bali bombing mastermind” Hambali to a Cham Muslim school in the Kingdom. It named the World Assembly for Muslim Youth and the Revival for Islamic Heritage as suspected terrorist organisations active in Cambodia.

“This at-risk segment of the population is accepting help with essential services, educational aid and mosque construction from NGOs who have direct ties to tier 1 and tier 2 Terrorist Support Entities from the Middle East,” the cable, dated May 5, 2010, stated.

But just as endemic corruption was a factor that made the Kingdom conducive to extremist Islamic infiltration, it had also hampered the efforts NGOs with suspected extremist support to foster radicalisation, the cable stated.

“Tales of infighting, corruption and ineptness have reportedly led to little progress in the way of radicalisation,” the cable reads. “However, Cambodia’s known deep vulnerabilities, culture of corruption and limited ability to govern and maintain law and order make it susceptible to external influences that are using NGOs and massive donations as the vessel to disseminate their message to the Cham.”

Illegal Afghan immigrant raped British prostitutes

An illegal immigrant who raped two prostitutes he lured to a dark and squalid Bradford city centre basement was jailed for 15 years.

Ali Rezai, an Afghan national smuggled into the UK from Greece in 2008, was smiling when police arrested him clutching his first victim’s coat and handbag, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Slightly-built Rezai, with cropped hair and wearing a T-shirt, stood with arms folded as an interpreter translated the judge’s sentencing remarks yesterday.

Judge James Goss QC said that although Rezai claimed to be aged 20, he was sentencing him as a man of at least 21.

The judge said Rezai raped his first victim on September 25 last year after taking her to a dark and dirty basement room below a disused warehouse off Akram Road. He dragged her to the ground and forced her to have sex, leaving her distressed and frightened.

She ran off and immediately alerted the police.

Questioned by detectives, Rezai, of Duchy Drive, Heaton, Bradford, denied having sex with the woman.

He was on bail when he struck again six weeks later, on November 6, luring a second prostitute into the same filthy room and raping her.

The court heard he was demanding and violent. The woman wept in court as Judge Goss said: “It was a deeply traumatic event for her.”

The judge said: “Although both victims were mature women prepared to have sex for reward on their terms, you abused their trust and vulnerability by raping them in a dark and private place to which you had taken them for the purpose of so-doing.”

The court heard that one woman was on medication and receiving counselling after her ordeal.

Rezai, who was convicted of double rape after a five-day trial last month, is set to be deported after serving his sentence.

His barrister, James Bourne-Arton, said his client was from a very poor background and may be younger than 20. He did not speak English, was emotionally backward and had no social circle during his time in Bradford.

The judge made a Sexual Offences Prevention Order barring Rezai from contacting his two victims. He is also prohibited from being in the company of a known prostitute or loitering in red light areas.

Indonesian Police Arrest School Headmaster Linked to Muslim Cleric

Indonesian police have arrested Abrori, the headmaster of a school where earlier this week a bomb exploded, sparking a two-day standoff between police and supporters of the school.

Police say the Umar bin Khatab school in West Nusa Tenggara Province, is linked to Abu Bakar Bashir, a radical Muslim cleric who has been convicted of supporting terrorists in the country.

On Monday, a bomb exploded at the school, killing a man. When police arrived to investigate, teachers and students armed with machetes and other weapons, blocked their way. Police were able to enter on Wednesday, and say they found a cache bomb-making material, guns and literature advocating violence.

Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, has suffered sporadic terrorist attacks by militant Islamists. The worst was the 2002 bombing in a tourist area on the island of Bali which killed more than 200 people.

The Indonesian government, which is secular, has cracked down on militants and has arrested, charged and convicted scores of people tied to terrorist attacks.

As evidence, it points to the 2010 Tijuana arrest of Hezbollah militant Jameel Nasr, who was allegedly tasked with establishing a Hezbollah network in Mexico and South America. The memo also recalls the April 2009 arrest of Jamal Yousef in New York, which exposed a huge cache of assault rifles, hand grenades, explosives and anti-tank munitions. According to Yousef, the weapons were stored in Mexico after being smuggled from Iraq by members of Hezbollah.

The memo warns that consequences of partnerships between Hezbollah and Mexico's drug partnerships could be disastrous for Mexico's drug war, given Hezbollah's advanced weapons capabilities — specifically their expertise with improvised explosive devices (IEDs). It notes that some Mexican criminal organizations have started using small IEDs and car bombs, a marked change in tactics that indicates a relationship with Islamic militants.

Partnerships between Mexican organized crime and Islamic militants are mutually beneficial — and therefore terrifying. The cartels are able to gain smuggling and weapons expertise, as well as access to cheap heroin from Afghanistan and Iran. The terrorists benefit from Mexico's drug war lawlessness and its porous border with their primary target: The United States.

UK: Predatory sex beast disguised car as taxi to pick up and rape a young woman

A predatory rapist disguised his car as a taxi to lure a young woman and violently attack her.

Amine Kacem, 24, prowled Manchester city centre looking for victims in a car on which he had deliberately put a large yellow sticker to make it look like a private hire vehicle. The sex attacker, also known as Nazim Hamido, abducted and twice raped the woman after she got in the back of the car on Sackville Street.

Kacem, who was on his first ever visit to Manchester, then calmly drove her back to her hotel. Judge Andrew Blake at Manchester Crown Court said he believed Kacem had deliberately posed as a taxi driver and put a ‘considerable amount of planning’ into the crime.

Jailing Kacem, who buried his head in his hands, the judge told him: "You targeted the victim, whom plainly you correctly identified as being drunk. You showed her no mercy."

The victim was left so psychologically scarred she washed herself with bleach after the attack.

Kacem fled the country for his native France after the attack.

The court heard how a nationwide appeal to track him down was launched and he returned to Britain months later after his girlfriend begged him to come back.

But Kacem did not hand himself in. Instead, he stole a bundle of banknotes from a customer at a Bureau de Change in London because he thought he needed cash for a lawyer.

When he was arrested for that offence, his DNA was taken and he was exposed as a rapist on the run, 18 months after the attack.

Kacem, of Golders Green, London, was jailed for nine years for the rapes. He claimed he was innocent, saying he had consensual sex with the woman and that someone else must have raped her afterwards.

The court heard she had become separated from pals when she was picked up by Kacem in the early hours of March 27, 2009. She told court that the memory of his vehicle with the large yellow sticker had come to her in a flashback.

Neil Fryman, prosecuting, said: "She got in the vehicle thinking she was safe."

The woman suffered a fractured right wrist in the attack, was left badly cut and bruised.

For several months, she feared that she had contracted HIV in the attack.

Mr Fryman said: "Psychologically, she has been affected because she’s now virtually housebound. She has been washing herself with bleach from time to time."

Rebels train children as young as 7 to fight against Gaddafi

With smiles on their faces, these young boys could be playing soldiers with their friends.

But the youngsters are in fact helping rebel fighters in Libya to overcome Colonel Gaddafi's troops as the bitter civil war rumbles on.

Boys as young as seven have been pictured carrying automatic weapons and cleaning rifles in Misrata as rebel forces battle loyalist troops in the outskirts of Zlitan.

Although they do not appear to have been involved on the front line, the boys are clearly being trained to operate the weapons.

Since the uprising broke out in February, armed rebels have seized control of much of Libya's east - where they set up an administration in Benghazi.

They also control the coastal city of Misrata and much of the Nafusa mountain range south-west of the capital Tripoli.

After a string of victories in recent months, rebel forces have expanded the area under their control in the mountains.. . .
Nato air raids on military targets have decreased, leaving rebel forces with a lack of firepower to combat the better-equipped Gaddafi troops.

It comes after the Human Rights Watch condemned rebels for looting shops, homes and medical facilities in towns seized in the western mountains.

Homes belonging to Gaddafi supporters are also believed to have been torched.

A report by the New-York based group called on rebel commanders to hold their forces responsible for damaging civilian property.

Poll: US Jews fear Muslim terror, Obama losing Jewish support

A new poll reveals that US Jews fear terrorism by American Muslims, are solidly against Palestinian Authority demands. The survey also confirmed previous polls that President Barack Obama is losing Jewish support.

Democratic pollster Pat Caddell and Republican pollster John McLaughlin conducted the poll for the non-partisan Security America Now organization.

The most startling result of the survey is that 76 percent of the respondents are concerned about Islamic terrorism committed by American-born Muslims.

The survey also showed a sharp change in the views of American Jews, most of whom are center or center-left concerning the Israeli-Palestinian Authority dispute. There is solid across-the-board opposition to Israel’s making further serious concessions to the PA.

Eighty-eight percent believe that a prerequisite for Palestinian statehood is its recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, a demand of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Furthermore, 81 percent oppose Israel’s being forced to accept the borders that existed between the temporary Armistice Lines in 1949 and the Six-Day War in 1967.

Concerning Jerusalem, 73 percent believe the city should be the united capital of Israel, and only eight percent agree that Israel should be forced to surrender parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority.

More than 80 percent oppose the PA attempt to achieve statehood, based on its demands, by going through the United Nations, a move that the president also opposes.

President Obama’s confidence that the Arab Spring uprisings will lead to a better Middle East are not shared by Jewish voters, 54 percent of whom think that the uprisings have made the world more dangerous for Israel.

As for their voting intentions in 2012, only 43 percent say they would cast a ballot for e-electing President Obama.

"These most loyal of Democrat voters are very concerned about the future of Israel and the tense relations between the Obama Administration and the State of Israel,” commented Paddell.

A majority-Muslim public school in Toronto is defending its policy of allowing an imam to lead Friday prayers in the cafeteria, saying students who leave school for prayers at a mosque typically don’t return to school.

The school prohibits any Christian prayers.

For the past three years, some 300 Muslim students at Valley Park Middle School have been allowed to use the school cafeteria for their Friday prayers. Before the policy change, school officials say students would leave classes early and not return.

“I think it’s important to note the prayer isn’t conducted under the auspices of the board,” Jim Spyropoulos, a superintendent for inclusive schools with the Toronto District School Board, told the Globe and Mail newspaper. “This was the best solution that avoided compromising instructional time.”

The issue is “about religious accommodation,” Shari Schwartz-Maltz, a school district spokeswoman, told The Canadian Press.

Those explanations have not placated angry parents, who are lighting up radio call-in shows and blogging furiously — particularly since Christian and other prayers are disallowed in the public school system.

In an unlikely alliance, Canadian Hindu Advocacy, the Jewish Defense League and the Muslim Canadian Congress have voiced strong opposition to the arrangement.

Islamic groups are “imposing their view” to “spread their ideology,” Ron Banerjee, director of Canadian Hindu Advocacy, told the Globe and Mail.

The Muslim Canadian Congress has asked for the services to be halted or closely monitored to avert the spread of radicalism.

The board noted that there have been no complaints about the arrangement until it was highlighted recently by what it called “a right-wing” Internet blogger.

Explosion at Indonesian Islamic school: Man killed while training students about bomb-making

A man reportedly trying to show students how to make explosives was killed by a homemade bomb inside an Islamic boarding school in Indonesia, police said Tuesday.

School officials and students have prevented police from entering the building since Monday's explosion, local police spokesman Lt. Col. Sukarman Husen said.

But they discovered the body of the suspected bomb maker, a 30-year-old man identified only as Firdaus, on a bus Tuesday as it tried to leave the school compound, he said.

Eleven people have been taken in for questioning, Husen said, adding that police also confiscated a number of arrows and machetes.

Husen said the bombing victim was a treasurer at the school, but media reports alleged he was a former bomb trainee in the Philippine region of Mindanao. According to TVOne, he was killed in an unintentional explosion while training students about bomb-making.

Police are still persuading the school officials to let them enter the compound, Husen said.

National Police Spokesman Maj. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said the explosion was suspected to be from a homemade bomb being prepared to attack the police.

"Therefore they don't allow police to enter the boarding school," Alam told reporters in the capital, Jakarta. He added that two platoons, including soldiers, were around the complex.

The school on Sumbawa Island in central Indonesia came to police attention late last month, when a 16-year-old student was arrested for allegedly stabbing to death an officer. Police believe he belonged to an Islamic militant group, and they said he told his interrogators that police deserved to die for hunting down jihadists.

Ohio Imam indicted in 2 Million dollar food stamp fraud probe

A federal grand jury indicted two men on food stamp fraud and other felony charges in connection to alleged illegal trafficking activities at several Dayton businesses that resulted in police raiding those stores in May.

The indictments — unsealed last week by the U.S. District Court Southern District of Ohio — show charges were filed against Mohammed Zaid, who owns A&M Meats at 1609 Gilsey Ave., and Mohammed Qaqa, an employee at Food City, 1829 Germantown St.

Food City, A&M Meats and two Dayton View businesses Five Pillars Market and Cup of Dreams — were raided two months ago by local, state and federal authorities following a 19-month undercover investigation.

Some employees and management at the four businesses allegedly bought and sold Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, or food stamp cards, while a few also sold guns and illegal drugs to confidential police informants, according to affidavits in support of search warrants unsealed after the raids.

Al-Idu Al-Gaheem, the owner of Cup of Dreams and Five Pillars Market and a local imam, allegedly received more than $2.5 million in food stamp reimbursements from the federal government, between $890,000 and nearly $2 million of which was from “unexplained” food stamp charges, according to an IRS agent’s affidavit in support of seizing Al-Gaheem’s bank account.

Between May 2010 and May of this year, Zaid is accused of purchasing 13 food stamp cards containing about $5,970 worth of food benefits from a confidential police informant, according to the indictment. Zaid allegedly paid for the cards with $2,479 in cash and a 9 mm pistol.

Zaid faces 12 counts of unauthorized use, transfer, acquisition, alteration or possession of benefits and five counts of wire fraud, according to court documents.

During a 13-month period, Qaqa, 29, is accused of selling 11 handguns to a confidential police informant while he worked at Food City. Qaqa allegedly sold the guns in exchange for $1,220 in cash and $390 worth of food stamps, according to the indictment.

Qaqa is also accused of buying seven food stamp cards, worth about $3,160, in exchange for $1,265 and three pistols. He faces 11 counts of dealing in firearms without a license, seven counts of unauthorized use or possession of benefits and two counts of wire fraud.

As a result of the undercover operation, the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Investigative Unit filed 14 administrative citations against Food City for illegal use of EBT cards, receiving stolen property and trafficking in EBT.

The Ohio Liquor Control Commission will determine whether to punish the business, which can include fines and revocation of the business’ alcohol permit, said Matt Mullins, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Liquor Control.

No charges have been filed yet against Al-Gaheem and other employees at his businesses. Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office, could not be reached for comment.

A grand jury last month also approved charges against Amjad El-Hardan for nine counts of misuse of food stamp benefits and one count of wire fraud.

El-Hardan, who was not named in the affidavits in support of May’s raids, allegedly bought about $2,600 worth of food stamp benefits for about $1,235 from February 2010 to last March, according to the indictment.

LA Sheriff’s Department Has A Muslim Public Affairs Unit Paid For With Public Funds

LA Sheriff's Department Has A Muslim Public Affairs Unit. It's paid for with public funds.

Separation of mosque and state, anyone?

More about the LASD's Muslim Community Affairs Unit from TheUnitedWest.com, via a somewhat sloppily written piece on their site:

Steve Whitmore, LASD Senior Media Advisor, confirmed the Muslim Community Affairs Unit receives taxpayer funds approximating $128,400 per year for two full time Deputies. When this reporter asked Mr. Whitmore if any other , religions, had a LASD Community Affairs Unit and received equal taxpayer funds, Whitmore replied, "There are no other religious Community Affairs Units in the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department."

For the LASD to meet the Establishment Clause threshold for "government neutrality toward religion" Sheriff Baca would have two options. First, Sheriff Baca would have to establish and manage Community Affairs Units with two Deputies and a $128,400 budget, for each recognized religion under his jurisdiction. The second option would be to dismantle the Muslim Community Affairs Unit in accordance with the Establishment Clause.

...The MCAU has another function, "The unit also trains department members about Islam and Muslims, touching on issues such as religious beliefs and customs. Academy recruits also receive a two-hour class on Muslim cultures and background as part of the cultural awareness training program." A program tasked with teaching Shariah Compliant Islamic values to incoming police recruits, while excluding the values of every other religion in Los Angeles County.

...A 2008 Pew Research Center survey reveals the citizens of California are 42% various Christian denominations, 31% Roman Catholic Christians, 2% Jewish, 2% Latter Day Saints, and 1% Muslim. The rest of the citizens are either non religious or of other minority faiths.

"According to the latest hate crime report from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, 88 percent of all religiously based hate crimes in 2009 were against Jews. Hate crimes that targeted Muslims (3 percent) ranked slightly above those directed at Scientologists (1 percent). In fact, the commission found that attacks against Christians (8 percent) outnumbered attacks against Muslims." It could be argued statistically, that if any religion needs a LA Sheriff's special religious Community Affairs Unit, it's the Jews and Christians not the Muslims.

Terry Sanderson states, "if there is one public service that absolutely must be secular it is the police force. There should be not one whisper of sectarianism in the force and all this talk of Muslim police officers must stop. They are police officers who are Muslim, but when they are at work they must be simply police officers full stop. They must serve the whole community without fear or favor. This goes also for police officers who are Christian, Hindu, Atheist or indifferent."

Canada opposes Palestinian bid for United Nations recognition of statehood

Canada is rejecting a Palestinian effort to win recognition at the United Nations as an independent state.

The move is not surprising given that the Harper government has forcefully highlighted its loyalty to Israel and the United States. Both oppose the Palestinian initiative.

The Palestinian Authority, which controls most of the West Bank, launched a campaign last month that will see it pursue a vote on statehood at the United Nations General Assembly in September — an effort borne out of its frustration over a peace process that is stalled.

The top Palestinian diplomat in Canada says her official delegation will still push hard for the support of Ottawa.

"On the conflict, we would like to see the Canadian government taking a neutral stand, supporting the creation of the state of Palestine, supporting the recognition of Palestine as a full member state in the UN in September," Linda Sobeh Ali, head of the Palestinian delegation, told The Canadian Press.

Sobeh Ali also said her delegation is pushing Canada to recognize Israel's pre-1967 borders — something Prime Minister Stephen Harper forcefully opposed, and managed to block from being part of the final communique of G8 leaders at their recent May summit in France.

"Our government's long-standing position has not changed. The only solution to this conflict is one negotiated between and agreed to by the two parties," said Chris Day, the spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

"One of the states must be a Jewish state and recognized as such, while the Palestinian state is to be a non-militarized one."

The Palestinians are trying to win the requisite two-thirds support in the assembly — 128 votes among the 192 member countries — before the matter is considered by the Security Council. They have reportedly won the support of more than 100 countries.

Harper's stand at the G8 pitted him against U.S. President Barack Obama, who only a week earlier said in a major speech that the pre-1967 border should be a starting point for the resumption of stalled peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.

But Washington last week reiterated its opposition to the Palestinian push for UN recognition of its statehood.

A State Department spokeswoman said the Palestinian move would not be helpful to getting the parties back to the bargaining table.

Canada echoes that view.

"We will monitor developments at the UN and respond appropriately," said Day. "As G8 leaders declared at Deauville, unilateral action is ultimately unhelpful."

Nottingham school worker jailed for raping girl, 13

A Nottingham man who worked at a school has been jailed for raping a 13-year-old girl.

Mikhail Mohammad, 45, of Radford, was sentenced to 10 years for rape and nine months for fraud for failing to disclose a previous conviction.

Nottingham Crown Court heard Mohammad befriended the girl, her mother and sister before taking her back to his flat and raping her in November 2010.

He denied raping the teenager but pleaded guilty to the fraud charge.

Abuse of trust

Referring to Mohammad's original conviction for indecent assault on a girl in 1991, Judge Jonathan Teare said: "That conviction prohibited you from obtaining work with children, especially at an educational college."

Judge Teare added, in the meantime, Mohammad had changed his name for "perfectly legitimate reasons" and no "sinister" motive, then got a job at a school in Nottingham where his victim was a pupil.

"You were friendly with her mother and sister and, as a result, you had told her that you wanted her to go to your flat because you wanted to giver her something," said Judge Teare.

"You took her back to your house and there in your bedroom you raped her. The courts well know that victims such as this may suffer for years as a result of what has been done to them and some may never recover from such an attack," he said.

In mitigation, Mohammad's solicitor, Jonathan Dee, told the court Mohammad had not changed his name so he could work with children and had worked with adults for several years before getting the job at the school.

British soldiers told not to shoot Taliban bomb layers

They are instead being ordered to just observe insurgents and record their position to reduce the risk of civilian casualties.

The controversial policy emerged at an inquest into the death of Sgt Peter Rayner, 34, a soldier from the 2nd Batallion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment who was killed in October last year by an improvised explosive device as he led a patrol in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Wendy Rayner, 40, disclosed that in the days leading up to his death her husband been told that it was not his job to attack insurgents laying bombs.

Mrs Rayner, who lives with their young son in Bradford, told the inquest that the insurgents were being allowed to get away with the murder of British troops.

She said: “They are not allowed to fire on these terrorists. If they can see people leaving these IEDs, why can’t they take them out? One officer even told him 'I am an army Captain and you will do your job'.

"We have lost too many men out there, they had seen people planting IEDs yet could not open fire or make contact with them. I believe strongly if people had taken on board what he was saying more he might have been here today.”

Under the Geneva Convention and the nationally administered Rules of Engagement the 9,500 British troops in Afghanistan are told they can only attack if there is an immediate threat to life.

A key part of the MoD’s counter-insurgency theory holds that it is more important to win over civilians by not killing innocent people than it is to eliminate every potential insurgent.

One officer who has recently served in Afghanistan said that if a soldier wanted to ascertain if an insurgent was an immediate threat, he would have to approach him and expose himself to greater risk.

He said: “A British soldier manning a checkpoint at night might watch a man digging a hole for an IED 100 metres away and would not try to shoot at him. It’s a ludicrous situation.

“There has to be an immediate threat to life and that’s a hard thing to prove. An IED does not count as an immediate threat.

“The Americans are different – their Rules of Engagement are pretty liberal. If they even suspect someone of laying a bomb, they can shoot them.”

Afghans routinely dig holes in river banks to store meat because there is no refrigeration and farmers often dig at night because it is cooler to work.

The Taliban bomb layers take advantage of this to spread confusion.

They set roadside bombs where farmers work and villagers store meat, and they also pay civilians $10 a time to dig a hole.

If the civilian is shot, it is a propaganda victory for the Taliban, and if the hole is not discovered by soldiers, it can be used later for a roadside bomb.

The existing policy of “courageous restraint” was led by the US General Stanley McChrystal 18 months ago and has been repeatedly criticised for leaving soldiers fighting “with one hand behind their backs”.

At yesterday’s inquest, after the acting Bradford coroner Paul Marks recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, Mrs Rayner urged the MoD to “let our soldiers be soldiers”.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “Troops in Afghanistan are required to exercise restraint when dealing with this threat as the use of deadly force is not always appropriate when there is a risk of collateral damage.

“The aim of this policy is to avoid innocent civilians who may be in the vicinity.”

U.S. Rep to the Human Rights Council calls for the resignation of Richard Falk over his Antisemitic blog post

Statement by Ambassador Eileen Donahoe, U.S. Representative to the Human Rights Council, July 7, 2011

I am repulsed by the recent cartoon posting to the personal blog written by Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on “the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.”

Mr. Falk’s continued comments and postings to his personal blog are deeply offensive, and I condemn them in the strongest terms. I am registering a strong protest with the UN on behalf of the United States. The United States has often been critical of Mr. Falk’s approach to his mandate, including his one-sided and politicized view of situation in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. We hope that he will resign, recognizing that his continued status as a UN mandate holder is a blight on the UN system.

The United States is deeply committed to the cause of human rights. Mr. Falk’s continued offensive postings and biased reporting does nothing to further the human rights of Palestinians or Israelis, nor anything to advance peace in the region.

In addition to being called the oldest profession in the world, in Algeria prostitution may also become the most dangerous, or at least in the city of M'sila, where over the past few weeks Islamic extremism has fostered an anti-prostitution crusade steadily taking on the semblances of a ruthless "hunt". A few days ago, the Chebilia district saw fresh violence break out with an "expedition" which only by pure chance did not result in mass casualties. About 400 young men attacked and set fire to a building in which two female prostitutes worked, with the attackers' rage not even taking into consideration that many families also lived in the building and had absolutely nothing to do with prostitution.

The attack, carried out by hundreds of young men, ended with a fire set to a first floor flat which quickly spread to the upper floors, leading to scenes of terrorised people trying to escape the flames. While the fire consumed everything in its path, the smoke reached many other buildings nearby and forced hundreds to flee. In reporting the incident, El Watan placed the blame on police who - instead of going into the streets and arresting the young extremists - simply stayed in the police station, leaving de facto control of the district to them. Their behaviour was called a "bona fide mess" by El Watan, which published a vignette alongside the story in which an old man dressed as an Islamic priest harangues a mass of young people looking lost and almost as if they were unwitting automatons in the hands of their manipulator.

Unfortunately, Chebilia is by no means no to this sort of punitive expedition. A few weeks ago another anti-prostitution raid ended with the death of a man and almost the lynching of some women who barely managed to survive but were forced to leave the city. The concern expressed by many is that the Islamic fundamentalist fostering these incidents may turn into a "prostitute hunt", like the one seen in the 1990s in the city of Ouargla, where many women were burnt alive amid enthusiastic yelling of those killing them.

Nation of Islam involved in murder of Notorious B.I.G. according to former member

Biggie, and 2Pac were two of the biggest names in rap in the late 90′s. Both were gunned down in their prime and both murders are still a mystery, until now. According to Clayton Hill, a former member of the Nation of Islam who is serving time in Chicago, he knows who helped kill Notorious BIG and actually helped cover it up according to HipHopDx.com.

On March 9, 1997 Christoper Wallace, Biggie’s real name, was killed in Los Angeles. According to Hill the killer was Dawoud Muhammad, who turned out to be rumored suspect, Amir Muhammad. Muhammed is a former Blood gang member. He was paid to pull the trigger and Hill was told by Nation of Islam Minister Tony Muhammad to retrieve the weapon and take it to the person driver to Minister Louis Farrakhan in Louisville, KY. But Hill doesn’t think Farrakhan was involved or knew about the murder.

According to an exceprt from his book,

“I told [Dawoud Muhammad] I had instructions to collect some property from him. He must have been given the same instructions because he didn’t hesitate or show any signs of doubt as he bent over and removed a trash liner out of a waste can and handed it to me to hold open. He reached into the duffle bag he brought with him and pulled out a semi-automatic hand gun that could have been a .9 millimeter or a .40 caliber wrapped in a white undershirt. Carefully he placed it into the trash bag making sure his hands never touched any of the exposed parts of the gun.”

Hill is about to publish and e-book, Diary of an Ex-Terrorist. The book will tell about his role in covering up the murder of Biggie Smalls.

Teenage girl 'lured two 16-year-olds into rape ordeal with three Asian men in their thirties'

A teenage girl lured two other youngsters into a terrifying rape ordeal after providing them for sex to three Asian men she referred to as ‘my boys,’ a court heard.

Stephanie Knight, then 17, invited the two 16-year-old girls for a night out clubbing during which they were plied with vodka and drugs and introduced to the group, it was claimed.

Later the girls were taken by Shahid Hussain, 37, his brother, Amjad Hussain, 34, and their cousin, Tanveer Butt, 39, to a dark and empty house without electricity in Accrington, Lancashire, where they were sexually abused, a jury was told.

The three men were said to have taken it in turns to abuse one of the teenagers who was repeatedly raped in different rooms of the house which one of the men used to live in, Burnley Crown Court was told.

Knight, who was to tell police she was Amjad Hussain's girlfriend, was said to have stopped one of the teenagers from going to her friend's help as she was raped three times by Shahid Hussain.

Knight was also alleged to have threatened the frightened second girl when she refused to perform sex acts on the men, the hearing was told.. . .Nick Courtney, prosecuting, told the court the girls were provided with alcohol and drugs before they became the victims of a number of sexual offences.

The first girl was allegedly raped orally, vaginally and anally and the second girl was subjected to a sex act and oral rape by Amjad Hussain in a car.

Mr Courtney said Knight, who had known the girls for about a week, invited them out for the evening, on December 5. During the evening out she was heard to say ‘Got them’ in a mobile phone conversation and named the girls.

Paedophile with a foot fetish who abused 18 girls at takeaway is jailed for four years

A takeaway worker who claimed asylum in Britain went on to groom 18 schoolgirls for sexual abuse.

Foot fetishist Homayon Narouzzad, 33, who had claimed he was fleeing persecution in Iran, targeted children as young as 12 when they came in to buy food.

Paying them as little as £5 to take part in sex acts centred around feet in his flat above the takeaway, the fitness fanatic afterwards gave them ‘star ratings’ when he stored their numbers in his mobile.

The case is the latest to highlight a trend of men frequently from Asian backgrounds systematically grooming predominantly white schoolgirls for abuse.

While the victims are often from ‘vulnerable’ backgrounds, the girls targeted by Narouzzad – who was jailed yesterday for four years – were mainly from stable homes.

He was finally granted leave to remain in Britain last year but by then he was already exploiting his friendly image to target girls for abuse.

In exchange for free food and cash, he would get the girls – many still dressed in their school uniforms – to let him kiss their feet or perform sex acts upon him.

They were paid from as little as £5 up to around £90 depending on the kind of abuse they would submit to.

One 13-year-old unwittingly acted as a ‘pimp’, recruiting friends who in some cases in turn brought along their younger sisters, creating a ring of girls aged between 12 and 15 subjected to regular sexual abuse.

Another girl came to his flat when she ‘wanted money to buy hair extensions’, the court heard.

The abuse went on for a year before one of the girls confided in her mother.

UN Watch, a Geneva-based monitoring group, today called on UN rights chief Navi Pillay to condemn the publication of an anti-semitic cartoon by Richard Falk, the UN Human Rights Council's expert on Palestine.

"For the UN human rights system to be credible in the fight against racism, its own representatives must not be allowed to incite hatred and racial discrimination with impunity," wrote UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, in a letter sent today to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"Depicting Jews as dogs and bloodthirsty has a dark history," said Neuer. "We urge Ms. Pillay to condemn this incitement to racism by a UN rights official, and to demand that Mr. Falk immediately remove the offending caricature and apologize."

Excerpt from the letter sent to Ms. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:

[...]We urge you—as the highest moral authority of the UN human rights system—to condemn Mr. Falk’s actions, which constitute incitement to hatred and racial discrimination as defined under Articles 1 and 4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Mr. Falk published the attached cartoon in his blog post of June 29. As you can see, it depicts a dog urinating on a woman symbolizing justice, and devouring a dead body with blood and bones spewing out of its mouth. The dog is shown in a garment marked “USA” and wearing a Kipa, the Jewish religious head covering, which is marked by a Star of David. The cartoon is manifestly anti-Semitic and, before a worldwide Internet audience, incites hatred against Jews as well as against Americans.

We are aware that mandate-holders are answerable only to the Council, and that Mr. Falk and his supporters will claim that the cartoon was published in his “personal capacity.” As you know, however, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in identical circumstances, unequivocally ruled that Mr. Falk has “a clear responsibility to uphold the high standards of the United Nations and the Council.” Accordingly, the Secretary-General twice condemned Mr. Falk for having propagated the 9/11 conspiracy theory and insulting the memory of the 3,000 victims of that attack. Likewise, in 2005, your predecessor, High Commissioner Louise Arbour did not hesitate to condemn expert Jean Ziegler for what she described as his “inflammatory” and “highly irresponsible” remarks.[...]

UK: Islamic extremists want to establish independent states with sharia law

Islamic extremists have called on British Muslims to establish three independent states within the UK.

The notorious Muslims Against the Crusades (MAC) group have named Yorkshire towns Bradford and Dewsbury and Tower Hamlets in East London as testbeds for blanket sharia rule.

The medieval 'emirates' would operate entirely outside British law, according to a document on the MAC website.

The MAC group, led by Abu Assadullah, was set up last year and has become notorious because of its violent protests, most provocatively burning poppies during the Remembrance Day silence.

Under the heading 'Muslims should set up Islamic emirates in the UK', MAC says: 'We suggest it is time that areas with large Muslim populations declare an emirate delineating that Muslims trying to live within this area are trying to live by the sharia as much as possible with their own courts and community watch and schools and even self sufficient trade.

'Likely areas for these projects might be Dewsbury or Bradford or Tower Hamlets to begin with.

'In time we can envisage that the whole of the sharia might one day be implemented starting with these enclaves.'

The call is likely to cause anger among moderate Muslims and community leaders in the areas concerned.

Ian Greenwood, leader of Bradford Council, said people would 'not allow extremists to provoke them into violence'.

London 7/7 bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan lived in Dewsbury, which has battled to diffuse extremism in recent years. In 2007, it was alleged that a number of Muslims in Dewsbury were running an illegal Islamic court from a school and similar claims have been made in Tower Hamlets and Bradford.

Tower Hamlets council was last year accused of falling under the control of extremist groups following a documentary by the Daily Telegraph journalist Andrew Gilligan.

The plan is part of the MAC's response to the government's revised Prevent strategy to combat Islamic extremism.

In its document, called Islamic Prevent, the fanatics also call for an end to CCTV cameras in and around mosques.

It says: 'Muslims must get rid of all CCTV cameras from Muslim institutions. Sadly many mosques have today adopted CCTV cameras to spy on Muslims on behalf of the police and local authorities.'

Other inflammatory instructions include demanding the release of all Muslim prisoners, a ban on Muslims joining the police or armed forces and a rejection of British democracy.

The document ends: 'We can conclude that measures by the UK government are nothing more than an attempt by them to strip the Muslim community of their Islamic identity and to integrate them into the non-Islamic way of life.'

A six-year-old student of Islamic School in Shahpur Mill Compound was allegedly paraded naked by her class teacher because her handwriting was not good enough. She was later locked up in a washroom and made to clean the toilet bowls.

Outraged parents of the class I student, who came to know about the incident from her classmate, confronted school trustee Iqbal Patel. However, Patel vehemently denied such an incident had taken place at school. The girl’s parents filed an FIR with Shahpur police following which the teacher was arrested on Monday evening.

Incidentally, in January, parents had accused the all-girls school of forcing their children to clean toilets.

The girl’s father Sharavar Sheikh told Mirror, “Our child is very enthusiastic about going to school. A few days ago, when she started making excuses for not attending classes, we sensed something was wrong. Although we asked her the reason, she made vague excuses and dodged the issue. It was through a classmate of hers that we came to know about the incident. We are appalled.”

They allege another girl was also paraded along with their daughter.

According to the girl’s mother Samina, class teacher Zebabanu found her daughter’s handwriting illegible and decided to punish her in the most “horrendous” manner.

“She stripped my child naked and paraded her in front of the class. As if that was not enough, she locked her up in the school washroom and made her clean the toilet bowls. Zeba warned my daughter not to tell us about the punishment unless she wanted to endure more,” says an outraged Samina.

The parents claim that their child was also beaten up by the class teacher. “My daughter was so traumatised that she would start sobbing at the mention of going to school. It was only after we assured her nothing would happen to her that she opened up and told us what the class teacher did to her,” says Sheikh, the girl’s father.

Canada: Hindus protest Muslim prayers at school

Hindus from across Toronto plan to protest outside a North York, Ont., middle school until a controversial Friday prayer session for 400 Muslim students are stopped.

The Canadian Hindu Advocacy is one of a number of Toronto-area groups opposed to the 30- to 40-minute services held in the cafeteria of Valley Park Middle School from November to March.

An imam from a local mosque is brought to school to head the service, officials said. During the service, male students are made to sit in front of the girls.

"This is alarming and unacceptable," said Advocacy director Ron Banerjee. "We respect the separation of church and state."

He said his group will be sending letters of protest to the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and calling for an end to the noon-hour services.

"There's not supposed to be any religious classes taking place in public schools," Banerjee said. "We will be asking the board to stop the practice."

He said school officials stopped students from reciting the Lord's Prayers years ago and his group will picket the Muslim classes if the practice isn't stopped.

"Our organization has received many complaints from Hindu students and parents in the Valley Park Middle School region," Banerjee said.

He said his group would like to begin a discussion with TDSB authorities aimed at restoring secular education within the school system.

"We would also like to discuss the serving of halal meat within TDSB schools," he said. "Our organization is determined to ensure all Hindu students are provided non-halal meat alternatives."

Area resident Khalid Sheikh, who claims to be president of Parents For School Not for Political Parties, said local school councils have been "hijacked and controlled" by Muslim groups and political parties.

"Neutral parents who do not like this political stuff in our schools are neglected," Sheikh said. "For God's sake, stop this nonsense in our schools."

Area trustee Gerri Gershon said "there are many tensions within the community.

Australian police get power to demand removal of burqas

Police in the Australian state of New South Wales have been handed broad-based powers to demand the removal of burqas and other face veils so they can identify people suspected of committing a crime.

The state government approved the move late Monday after the recent case of a Muslim woman who was acquitted when a judge decided she could not be identified because was wearing a burqa.

“I don’t care whether a person is wearing a motorcycle helmet, a burqa, niqab, face veil or anything else, the police should be allowed to require those people to make their identification clear,” Premier Barry O’Farrell said.

The move follows the high-profile case of Carnita Matthews, who in November 2010 was sentenced to six months jail for falsely accusing police of forcibly trying to remove her burqa when she was stopped for a traffic offence.

Her sentence was quashed last month when a magistrate said he could not be 100 per cent sure it was Matthews who made the complaint because officers were not able to see the face of the accuser.

New South Wales State Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione demanded a clarification of the law and O’Farrell said the new powers should help prevent a recurrence of such cases in the future.

“I have every respect for various religions and beliefs but when it comes to enforcing the law the police should be given adequate powers to make a clear identification,” said O’Farrell.

Police previously had the power to ask women to remove face veils during the investigation of serious offences, but not on more routine matters.

Spokesman for Muslim conference in Sydney: Australian Troops 'fair game' for Muslims

AUSTRALIAN troops fighting in Afghanistan are "fair game" and Muslims "have an obligation" to target them, a spokesman for a Muslim conference in Sydney said yesterday.

Branding the Afghan war a western invasion, Uthman Badar, from the radical Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir, said: "If our members exist in a country where an occupation has occurred, in capacity as individuals they would have an obligation to resist."

Asked directly if he condoned the killing of Australian troops in Afghanistan, Mr Badar replied: "If you are occupying someone else's land those victimised people have the right to resist."

He also refused to condemn tactics such as suicide bombing as long as "innocent non-combatants" were not targeted. He was speaking as hundreds of Muslims gathered in Lidcombe, in Sydney's west, to promote their call for the creation of an Islamic state ruled by sharia law, stretching from Spain to Australia. The group has already been banned in many countries overseas, including parts of the Middle East.

Although Hizb ut-Tahrir does not represent most Muslims in Australia, it has a growing following here.

While our forces joined the war in Afghanistan to capture Osama bin Laden and fight the Taliban after the September 11, 2001, attacks, Mr Badar said the Australian government had no business being in Afghanistan.

"You have no business in interfering with the people of the Muslim world," he said. "Military occupation should be resisted militarily. People there have a right to resist."

Mr Badar also weighed into the debate about whether women wearing burqas who are stopped by police should be forced to reveal their faces, saying it was part of a concerted political attack on the religion.

"The issue is not really the burqa," he said. "The issue that policymakers have is with Islam itself."

The group, which claims to be the largest Islamic political party on earth, operating in 40 countries, is enjoying growing influence in our region with a series of Indonesian events in the last month drawing 150,000 people.

A newspaper journalist who cruelly mocked the the deaths of three teenagers killed on a gap year has been forced to apologise for her grossly insensitive comments on Twitter.

Guardian columnist Kia Abdullah tweeted that she had 'smiled' when she heard the news that students Max Boomgaarden-Cook, 20, Bruno Melling-Firth and Conrad Quashie, both 19, had died in a coach crash in Thailand.

The journalist, who has published a controversial book about paedophiles, asked her hundreds of followers if it was 'awful' that she felt no sympathy for the death of the three school friends, who had spent months saving for a tour of South-East Asia.

'Is it really awful that I don't feel any sympathy for anyone killed on a gap year?', she wrote.

'I actually smiled when I saw that they had double-barrelled surnames. Sociopath?'

Her flippant comments about the tragic deaths - just days after the boys died - received a torrent of disgusted Tweets.

Abdullah initially backtracked by deleting her insensitive Tweets, apologising for her 'stupid and heartless comments' and saying she 'should have known better'.

But the columnist then seemed to take a more defiant tone, insisting that she thought deleting her posts would be 'cowardly' but she was caving in to demand from shocked Tweeters, posting 'since the consensus is that I should, I will'.

She then appeared to recognise the anger surrounding her glib remarks, posting 'Rather glad I'm not on foursquare'; which is an application that lets people know online where the user is.

The News of the World reported that the grieving step-mother of Max, Madeleine Boomgaarden, used Twitter to respond to the contibuter's cruel jibes, telling her 'Your words have caused so much pain.

'As the step-mother of one of those boys whose Thai bus coach deaths you laughed at, hope you regret the pain & your career dented.'

The three gap-year students were killed in a road crash in Thailand just days after beginning their ‘trip of a lifetime’.

The school friends had saved for months before setting off on a tour of South-East Asia.

They died instantly early on Tuesday last week when the coach in which they were travelling from Bangkok to the northern town of Chiang Mai was hit from behind by a bus.

Conrad, who had been due to start university in Manchester with Max in September, had celebrated his 19th birthday in the Thai capital on Saturday with his two friends and girlfriend Elisa Smith, who then flew back to London.

UK terrorists told: Pretend to be gay so you don't get caught

al-Qaeda fanatics in Britain are being taught to avoid detection – by pretending to be gay.

A new terror training manual tells Islamic extremists to lie about their sexuality if a woman approaches them in case she is a “honeytrap” spy sent by security services.

The handbook, which was uncovered by a Sunday Mirror investigation, says: “Many hotels – especially in busy UK cities – have women hanging around the lobby areas in order to attract men.

“A young beautiful woman may come and talk to you. The first thing you do to protect yourself from such a situation is to make dua (prayers) to Allah for steadfastness.

“The second thing is to find an excuse to get away from her that is realistic and sensible, such as you having a girlfriend for the past few years and you are loyal to her or you are homosexual.”

The suggestion is one of many tips in the manual, called Class Notes From The Security and ­Intelligence Course.

The 64-page guide, all in English, was written to try to stop the police and MI5 uncovering the identity of terrorists plotting attacks on British soil.

It was produced by Taliban warlords in Afghanistan and was discovered by Sunday Mirror investigators on a password-protected Jihadist website used by UK cells. It has emerged just months after MI5 launched a recruitment drive for women to work as spies.

The guide was placed online after Osama Bin Laden was killed, suggesting Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are determined to launch revenge attacks on the UK.

Its introduction says: “Our aim is to publish an English version of a training course to provide basic principles of security for working brothers in Europe.”

Other advice warns fanatics not to mix with neighbours too much and to wear sunglasses to make themselves harder to identify. There are also tips on driving a getaway car during a terror plot.

It quoted Mohammed Abdul Rahman, head of the personal affairs division at Dubai’s courts, as saying e-divorces are legal but must be proved at court.

“The wife files a divorce case at court after she receives the divorce message while the court has to verify this by asking the husband,” he said.

But the paper quoted Dubai-based lawyer Rashid Tahluk as saying divorces by e-mail or mobile phone text should not be considered as final.

“Marriage is usually carried out by an Islamic contract and Maazoun (authorised person) and this means divorce should be carried out in the same way….I believe a divorce by e-mail or mobile text is doubtful and not a real divorce.”

Tahluk said a husband could deny that he had sent a mobile phone text divorcing his wife, adding that the court must not base its judgment on forensic results.

“The police laboratory can not prove that the husband himself pressed the button and sent a divorce text to his wife…it could his wife or a second or a third wife who sends a divorce text…e-mails also can be easily hacked and penetrated.”

The paper quoted another lawyer as saying he believes an e-divorce is enough for a husband to divorce his wife.

“In case a husband sends a message to his wife saying ‘you are divorced’ then these are clear and straight words that the man has divorced his wife…in such a case, the divorce is done and the court should support it.”

CAIR stonewalls after IRS revokes status

In the wake of loss of its tax-exempt status, the Council on American-Islamic Relations is refusing to comply with IRS rules requiring public disclosure of its annual tax disclosure forms.

Two news agencies that asked for the forms were brushed off.

The IRS states a tax-exempt organization must make available "for public inspection and copying" its exemption application and its annual return, including Form 990.

The nonprofit-organization monitor GuideStar, which provides online access to the annual returns of nonprofits, states under its listing for CAIR's national organization that the Muslim group's "exempt status was automatically revoked by the IRS for failure to file a Form 990, 990-EZ, 990-N, or 990-PF for 3 consecutive years."

"Further investigation and due diligence are warranted," the GuideStar notice about CAIR says.. . .
Politico said a CAIR attorney initially said the organization's appearance on the IRS list referred to a defunct arm of the organization, insisting CAIR and the CAIR Foundation were unaffected.

The GuideStar listing for CAIR Foundation Inc., however, states that the group's tax exempt status has been revoked, and the section that lists annual returns is blank.

WND reported in January 2010 that CAIR's national office had failed to file financial records since 2007 as required by federal law.

CAIR told Politico the IRS was to blame but could not produce the Form 990 disclosure forms for 2007 through 2010 when requested.

"We are looking into all of these issues and are working with the IRS to clear things up," CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper told Politico. "CAIR was clearly not targeted or singled in any way by the IRS."

The IRS revocation of CAIR's non-profit status prompted Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., to ask the IRS to investigate whether CAIR has "illegally received or solicited funds from foreign governments or agents."

Wolf said in a letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman that he wants to resolve the question of whether foreign and potentially hostile governments have funded CAIR.

The move by the IRS followed an expose published by WND Books that revealed the violations by CAIR, triggering a federal investigation and audit.

Favoured methods used by his secret police included eye-gouging; piercing of hands with an electric drill; suspension from a ceiling; electric shock; rape and other forms of sexual abuse; beating of the soles of feet; mock executions; extinguishing cigarettes on the body, and acid baths.. . .

A report last year branded Britain a ‘safe haven’ for war criminals with hundreds of people wanted for murder and torture living here free from prosecution.

An Egyptian court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Muslims requesting the disclosure of the wife of a Coptic priest, whom the Muslims allege converted to Islam and was being held against her will by Christians.

The demand to know the whereabouts of Camilia Shehata was rejected by the court because the lawyers failed to provide sufficient proof to support their accusations that the Coptic Church was holding her against her will.

According to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) the attorney for Shehata, Dr. Naguib Gabriel said, “The only thing the Muslim lawyers delivered as proof for their claims were snippets of newspapers from the Internet.”

The case has been before the court for four months, over which time Gabriel advocated that Shehata was never detained by the Coptic Church, and that she never even converted to Islam as was being alleged.

A power of attorney was signed by Shehata for Gabriel to represent her in court, AINA has reported.

“This was issued by the public notary, by a Muslim employee and in which she wrote "Christian" beside her religious affiliation, while she could have easily written Muslim instead," said Gabriel.

"If she was really detained by the Church, she could have asked for help from the employee when she went to the notary," he added.

The court was not impressed by the evidence shown by the Islamic lawyers, and a request by them for Shehata to appear personally in court was flatly refused by the judges.

According to AINA Gabriel said following the decision: “Today's court ruling closes the curtain on one of the most famous and difficult cases in Egypt.

"Muslims will not be allowed to demonstrate regarding this matter anymore, which they used as a pretext to create sectarian strife between Muslims and Christians."

Muslims have accused the Coptic Church of abducting Shehata since July 2010 when following a row with her husband, Tedaos Samaan, a priest at St George’s Church , she went to stay with relatives.

The accusations came about because Shehata did not tell anyone of her whereabouts, which she now admits was her “biggest mistake,” according to an interview with Al-Hayat Christian TV Channel.

In the initial confusion Shehata’s husband believed she had been abducted by Muslims, and he gathered 3,000 Coptic Christians to protest against her disappearance in Cairo.

She was tracked down by state security forces days later, and she later reconciled with her husband. However, more than 20 Islamic demonstrations calling for the return of their “sister in Islam” meant she and her family have had to remain in hiding ever since, report AINA.

Key US lawmaker condemns Muslim Brotherhood talks

A key US lawmaker on Friday condemned contacts between President Barack Obama's administration and Egypt's once-banned Muslim Brotherhood, warning the group aims to impose strict Islamist law.

"I strongly disagree with the Obama Administration's contacts with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood," said Republican Steve Chabot, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.

"The United States should be doing everything it can to support secular democratic opposition groups instead of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood with the proclaimed objective of establishing Sharia law," he said in a statement.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to Budapest on Thursday that Washington had been in "limited contacts" with the group as part of an effort to adjust to Egypt's political upheaval.

"The Obama administration is continuing the approach of limited contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood that have existed on and off for about five or six years," she told journalists.

"We believe that given the change of the political landscape in Egypt, it is in the interest of the United States to engage with all parties that are peaceful and committed to non-violence," she said.

"This is not a new policy but it is one that we're re-engaging in."

Chabot said Washington had "a clear interest in the emergence of a democratic and prosperous Egypt" because Egypt's future will have "a disproportionate impact on the future of the broader Middle East."

The lawmaker said the United States should be pushing for democratic and free-market reforms in Egypt, and said one key goal was seeing its government respect the country's peace treaty with Israel.